H-K Hall of Fame dinner rescheduled

HADDAM/KILLINGWORTH — The annual H/K Hall of Fame dinner, scheduled in May, has been postponed until May 2021. More information will be provided in the fall.

The dinner was to honor this year’s HK Hall of Fame inductees: Elizabeth “Betty” Cernan, Robert Kadrle, Betty Meyer, Susan Rutty, Carol Sheridan and Edward Yantosh.

I-Park will delay opening

EAST HADDAM — I-Park will delay the start of its 2020 residency season in light of the current health situation. “Most all residency programs across the country have reluctantly shut down until further notice,” members said in a statement. “The first group of scheduled artists was informed that their May residency was cancelled. And those scheduled for subsequent sessions were advised that we were taking a wait-andsee attitude. In light of the multiple uncertainties associated with the current crisis, the decision was unavoidable. I-Park’s first priority is the well-being of its artists-in-residence, staff and volunteers – and their families.”

All public events at I-Park are also on hold at this time. Staff members are working off-site and keeping the lines of communication open. Maintenance activities continue on the grounds. Visit www.i-park.org and go to Facebook and Instagram for updates.

I Park is an artists-in-residence program offering fully funded residencies in visual arts, creative writing, music composition/sound art, moving image, and architecture/landscape design. Since its founding in 2001, I-Park has sponsored almost 1,000 residencies, and has developed cross disciplinary projects of cultural significance and brought them into the public domain. Set within a 450-acre nature preserve, I-Park encourages dialogue between the natural and built environments, and has been the setting for exhibitions, performances, symposia, and programs that facilitate artistic collaboration. For more information, visit i-park.org.

Seder tools available from Chabad

As Passover approaches, and with restrictions put in place to curtail the spread of COVID-19, Connecticut’s Jewish community is preparing to celebrate Passover — which begins April 8 — at home under mandated shelter-in-place orders. Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest CT is responding with Passover Seder-to-Go kits and DIY tools.

Unable to gather for the seder with family, friends and community as they planned to, for many, this will be their first foray into leading it themselves. And while there isn’t a noticeable supply shortage, this is something many may find difficult preparing for for the first time. In response, Chabad is offering “Seder-to-Go” kits containing instructions on how to conduct a Passover seder, as well as all of the traditional foods, ensuring people wishing to have a Passover seder can easily do so, whether they are in quarantine or just isolating at home.

In the past 25 years, Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest CT has led large community Passover seders open to the public and has ensured that all of Northwest’s community members had the tools to celebrate Passover, including providing for the home-bound and institutionalized. This year, with social distancing measures in place, they have ramped up those efforts to ensure that everyone will have what they need to celebrate the holiday in their homes.

“While traditionally, Passover is a time when families and communities come together, this year, we’ll each be celebrating at home, and for many, it will be their first time conducting a Seder,” said Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach. “That’s why we’re making sure that everyone has what they need to celebrate Passover.”

The preparations for the seder are not just in the kitchen. The seder is generally led by the head of the family and all kinds of people are stepping into that role on short notice. So Rabbi Eisenbach is offering an online crash course and “model seder” to teach them, as well as sharing online Passover resources at www.ChabadNW.org/Corona Passover made to help people through this unique Passover on the world’s largest Judaism website.

While many groceries have the machine-made square matzahs, also being made available are traditional, round shmurah matzah, the unleavened bread made from flour guarded and watched from the wheat field to the mill, before being handmade in a bakery and then eaten on Passover, adding a unique flavor and experience to the seder.

The local effort is part of a global Passover campaign that began in 1954, when the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, launched the shmurah matzah initiative as part of an effort to create awareness and promote observance of the holiday. An estimated four million handbaked shmurah matzahs will be distributed by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement leading up to Passover.

As chametz (leavened products) cannot be owned by a Jew on Passover, Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest CT is providing a chametz-sale service online. The chametz is set aside in one’s home, sold to a non-Jew for the duration of Passover and bought back after the holiday. The chametz sale service is also available at www.Chabad.org/SellChametz which coordinates approximately 90,000 chametz transactions, but this year with synagogues shuttered, they anticipate the number to jump to 350,000.

Visit www.ChabadNW.org/Corona Passover for details.