Surrounded by the hustle and bustle of people carrying boxes and answering phones, Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, co-director of the Cyprus Jewish Community Center describes the enormous logistical task of organizing five community Passover celebrations for the tourist destination popular with Israelis.

Besides the communal Seders at the center in Larnaca, feasts are planned in Ayin Napa, where the Chabad House has a permanent branch, Limassol and the capital city of Nicosia.

With a budget of more than $50,000, Raskin, with the assistance of Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical students, is overseeing food preparation for some 800 people. Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the education arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, provided a grant for the effort. Most of the provisions arrived from Italy and Israel, but the rabbi also arranged for a local boutique winery to produce the island’s first Kosher for Passover wine in hundreds of years.

“All of the food will be ready before Shabbat,” says Raskin, noting that preparing for the Seders on Shabbat itself is prohibited. “The community will gather on Shabbat afternoon and learn about Passover, and when Shabbat concludes, we will set up for the Seder.”