Park City Jewish Community Marks Passover With Seders and Services This Week

Chabad Park City's community seders drew families, residents and visitors to the Chabad Center at 1327 Park Ave on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, opening a week of Passover observances that stretch through April 9 for Park City's Jewish community.

Rabbi Yudi Steiger, who directs Chabad Park City, led both dinners beginning at 7:30 p.m., providing attendees with hand-baked Shmurah matzah, wine and a guided retelling of the Exodus story. "This year, as the Jewish community prepares to mark the Festival of our Freedom, our celebrations are increasingly meaningful," Steiger said.

Passover, known in Hebrew as Pesach, commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt roughly 3,330 years ago. It has become America's most widely observed Jewish holiday, with about 70 percent of American Jews gathering each year for the seder meals that open the holiday on its first two nights, according to Chabad Park City.

Temple Har Shalom, Park City's Reform congregation on SR-224, also hosts a communal Passover seder as part of its annual programming, providing a second gathering point for local families and seasonal visitors. Together, the two congregations reflect a Jewish community that has grown considerably since the early 1980s, when only a handful of Jewish families marked Passover in the Wasatch Back.

The Chabad seders in Park City are part of a global Passover initiative launched in 1954, with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement distributing roughly four million boxes of hand-baked Shmurah matzahs this year alongside holiday guides printed in 18 languages. Organizers encouraged attendees to RSVP in advance to help plan seating and meal logistics, a practical reality for small congregations managing holiday-weekend demand from both year-round residents and the second-home families who swell Park City's population each spring.

Residents who want to attend remaining services or connect with local Passover programming can contact Rabbi Steiger directly at Chabad Park City; Temple Har Shalom can be reached through its website for ongoing holiday schedule information.