Passover (or Pesach in Hebrew) begins Monday night! The holiday celebrates the freedom of the Israelites from decades of brutal Egyptian slavery, in 1313 BCE, or more than 3300 years ago. Jews are forbidden to own or eat chametz (leavened grain, including wheat, spelt, oats, barley or rye) during the 8 days of the holiday. Jews around the world have two large meals (other than in Israel, where there is only one), called Seders, where the story of Passover is recited from the Haggadah, where we eat matzah and bitter herbs, and drink four glasses of wine.

For more information about Passover, please click here.

We'd like to wish all our subscribers a happy and kosher Pesach! If you like this newsletter, please share it with your friends.

As mentioned above, Jews are forbidden to own any chametz during Passover. Traditionally, people have sold their chametz to a neighbour for the duration of Passover. But, we live in the Internet age now, and selling chametz is easier for us than for our ancestors! If you'd like to do a quick mitzvah and have not yet arranged to sell your chametz, Chabad offers a wonderful service to sell your chametz for you. Please click here to sell your chametz via Chabad.

It is a mitzvah to attend a Seder on Passover, and as such, our Toronto Jewish events calendar has listed a few community Seders around Toronto, so that every Jew can get a mitzvah. Here are some of these Toronto community seders:

• Chabad of Danforth-Beaches
• Chabad of Midtown
• Jewish Russian Community Center - In 9 locations throughout the city - please check the website for more information. Seders are conducted in English, Yiddish and/or Russian, depending on the location.

Also, in previous years, the following organizations have held kosher community seders: Pine Villa Retirement Home and Baycrest. The following have offered non-COR-certified community seders: Shaarei Beth El, Solel, Temple Har Zion and the West Toronto Jewish Community.

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Great News! Toronto's very own Jaffa Road has been nominated for a 2010 JUNO Award for their CD "Sunplace" in the World Music Album of the Year category. Jaffa Road describes "Sunplace" as combining original and ancient poetry sung in Hebrew, Spanish and English with pulsating dub grooves, belly dance rhythms, ambient electronic textures, and exhilarating improvisations.

The JUNO nomination comes hot off of Jaffa Road's song L.Y.G (Lo Yisa Goy) winning the Grand Prize in the World Category in the first round (Session 1) of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Now they are up against the Grand Prize winners of Session 2. Today, on Friday March 26th, the voting will begin for the final World Music Song of the year.

Please vote for Jaffa Road in the World Music category! To hear their song, please visit their website.

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