Denmark Town Experiences First-Ever Modern Seder

Avshalom Medina has always believed in Divine Providence. As a rebellious 25-year-old, he left his native Israel for Aarhus, Denmark, to get away from Jewish life, but never lost faith in G‑d. Ten years later, after the city's first-ever Passover Seders, he's "trying to find the light again."

Some 70 people attended the Sunday night Seder conducted by two Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical students. A dozen came out for the one the night before. For Medina, the experience was his own Exodus from Egypt.

"This is the start," he said from his home Wednesday. "When I came to Denmark, I was young and stupid and wasn't thinking. I just lived day to day.

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"I didn't do it to hurt G‑d," he added. "I never ate pork, I never mixed meat and milk, but the food that I eat is not kosher. It's starting to bother me very much."

The Seder was "exactly what I needed," he explained. "We don't have a kosher shop. We don't have a synagogue. We have absolutely nothing.

"I'm older and wiser, and I'm missing my religion very much," continued Medina. "Throughout my life, I've recognized the many miracles done for me, and now I don't feel it anymore. I've gotten really scared: Maybe I've done too much damage. All the Passover things my family sent me from Israel, the matzah, the wine, got stopped at the airport and I only got them Monday. Passover was coming, and I had no way to celebrate it.

"But then Chabad came. It was a miracle for me."

According to rabbinical student Sholom Laine, about 95 percent of the Jews in Aarhus – Denmark's second-largest city – are Israelis like Medina and share similar experiences.

"Here are people who are living here to be away from Yiddishkeit," he mused. "And yet, when there was services, they wanted to come. They came to the Seder and were very excited about coming."

One of the people who attended the Seder was a Polish Jew who immigrated in the 1970s. His daughter said that it was the first time they had been to a Seder in 45 years.

Laine, who was in Aarhus a month ago to conduct the community's first-ever Purim celebration, added that conducting the Seders was an inspiring experience for him and his colleague, Moshe Raksin.

"We were watching people get excited about something you wouldn't expect them to be excited about," said Laine. "It's an amazing thing."

Three hours away in Copenhagen, Rabbi Yitzchok Loewenthal, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Denmark, said that 120 people attended the communal Seder.

"There were locals, American students, some tourists and some Israelis," said the rabbi. "Every table was a different nationality."

Back in Aarhus, Medina said that he's considering moving to Copenhagen to be closer to the organized Jewish community.

"I was missing a lot of the religious side of the holidays," he explained. "Then, the students came and gave us all the things we should have during Passsover.

"Nobody before explained to me the meaning of my mistakes," added Medina. "I want to correct them, because life is too short."