Led by its charismatic founder Lova Eliav and village director David Palmach, the annual Pesach seder at Nitzana was the first in Israel for most of the participants. The seder was held in Hebrew and Russian and was directed at students on the SELAH Science program though also present were visitors from throughout Israel and the Diaspora including the US.

It is said that each Jew should celebrate the Pesach seder as if he or she had personally come out of Egypt. For most of those present at the Nitzana seder, who were born in the former Soviet Union, and had seen their country liberate itself from Communist oppression and then returned to their ancestral homeland, climbing into such a personalized reading of the hagadah came naturally. The seder included songs, entertainment and traditional food, while the lucky student who found the afikomen received a special gift - a bicycle.

Nisan 5763 - April 2003