MAY 1, 2025 | OPINION | By Essie Lamar (Guest Writer)
I’ve celebrated and observed Passover nearly every year since I can remember. Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, is a spring holiday honoring and remembering the Torah story of the Jews’ passage out of Egypt. During this passage, the Jews did not have enough time to pack food or let their bread rise. Instead, any dough they had was quickly baked, and it rose into a cracker-like treat, known as matzah. Jews observing the Passover holiday clean their houses of all traces of leavened bread, called chametz and only eat matzah for the eight days of the holiday.
This is the first year in a while that I’ve been able to celebrate Passover with Jewish friends of mine. I often go to meals and holidays at the Interfaith House, and the community I’ve found on campus excited me to celebrate Passover here at Colorado College. On campus, the Hillel hosts a Seder for Jews and non-Jews alike to celebrate the beginning of Passover. It’s a fun and wonderful way to connect and learn about Jewish holidays.
The week of Passover, my excitement was very quickly dulled when I found that the only way for me to keep Passover was to buy or make my own food. The only dining hall on campus with Passover-related food was Rastall. It offered a weak selection of a few matzah crackers, soupy-looking charoset and some fish. These food options do not create a full meal for anyone, especially anyone who is gluten-free or vegan. What a joke. Though an effort was made, none of the options were technically Kosher for Passover, either, meaning students avoiding food that had come into contact with leavened bread could not consume it. Additionally, there was no hechsher label on anything at Rastall (a symbol on a food product that signifies that it is Kosher).
A quick search of the CC website brings me to a page outlining a complete exemption from the meal plan based on a religious diet, not any accommodations for students looking to remain on the meal plan and still eat according to their faith. These requests have to be made a semester in advance, and, from what the webpage says, it isn’t a change in the meal plan; it’s a complete removal from it.
It shouldn’t be this difficult for religious students to get food accommodations on campus. I know I’m not the only one with religious dietary restrictions. During a holiday like Ramadan, the dining halls close too early for Muslim students to get food after sundown. During Passover, there are no real meals for students to eat. Whether it’s a year-round restriction or only for certain times of the year, CC needs to make its student body aware of its ability, or lack thereof, to accommodate these diets so that students can properly plan their meals and be able to eat on campus.