Dozens Of Toddlers In Cherry Hill Learn About Passover

By Steve Tawa

CHERRY HILL, NJ (CBS) -- This Friday marks the beginning of Passover, and it's never too early to teach youngsters about the holiday.

At the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, their plates were full, to indulge their stomachs - and their curiosity.

About 45 two-year-old children were seated at long tables, as teacher Janice Herskovits described the story of Passover.

Many of the youngsters shouted out their versions of how Moses parted the Red Sea.

"He tapped the river and it opened."

Herskovits told them how it commemorates when the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.

"This is the first year in which they can really absorb the story and understand it. So, we do a model Seder in school, so that they can be excited about having the Seder in their own homes."

Each of the young girls and boys had their own plate, chock full of symbolic foods, including hard-boiled egg and parsley, as well as charoset - the kids chopped up apples, and mixed in raisins and cinnamon and grape juice - then a piece of lettuce, for the bitter herbs eaten during the Seder.

This year, Passover begins at sundown on Friday. Jewish families gather for the first two nights for a Seder, that ritualistic dinner in which the story of Passover is passed along.