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Only one group in Israel will celebrate Passover en masse (and they’re all sick)

The Dan Panorama hotel will hold a Seder for some 500 recovering coronavirus patients.

By World Israel News Staff

When Jews in Israel, and indeed around the world, will celebrate the Passover holiday with only their immediate family, or in the worst case, entirely alone, in one place at least there will be a mass Seder. Ironically, all the participants have corona.

The Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv, which was the first of several hotels in Israel converted into a quarantine space for those with light symptoms of the disease, will hold a Seder for some 500 people recovering from the disease. The Seder is the festive meal that takes place on the first day of the week-long holiday commemorating the Exodus from Egypt,

Ze’ev Keren, the director of events at the hotel, told Channel 12 news that the hotel, its staff, and the Home Front Command wanted to do something special for their guests who were getting back on their feet after suffering through the dreaded disease.

Two seders will take place. One will be for the majority of the guests. The second, in a side hall, will be held for the ultra-Orthodox, or haredi, guests.

Ironically, the Seder will only be for those diagnosed with corona. The area of the hotel they’re in, designated orange, is off-limits to those without corona.

Each participant will be given a plate with food, a Haggadah to follow along with the service, and a yarmulke. One person will  be given the privilege of leading in the reading of the Haggadah, which sets out the order of the meal and tells the story of the Exodus in keeping with the religious commandment ‘to teach your children.’

Yehuda Friedman, 20, who has been in the hotel for the last two weeks, told Israel Hayom: “A Seder without family in a place that’s foreign to you can be very disconcerting. From what I understand there will be good food, and I hope there will be a feeling of home.”

There’s another irony at the Dan Panorama. Its synagogues have been filled with minyanim (meetings of 10 required for Jewish public prayer). In the rest of Israel, such gatherings have been banned due to the health risk.