“What about your second Pesach Seder? I usually have American bochurim. Come to me”

As told to Shoshana Gross by Yitzchak Rowner

MY friend Dovid explodes into the room with the force of an Israeli tender driver chasing a tenth fare, throwing himself on the sagging couch in the corner of our dirah and mopping his crimson face.

“Figured out your matzav?” Ezra Rubin asks, tossing clothing into a dusty suitcase.

“Not yet. My mother’s working on tickets. I told her about that great deal on United — the one Markowitz was klehring about after first seder, but…” an eloquent shrug. He looks at me. “What about you, Yitzchak?”

“I have an aunt and uncle in Bnei Brak. I really want to go home, but with the crazy Covid regulations, who knows if I’ll be back in time for the next zeman? I figure it’s better to stay here for Pesach if I can,” I say.

“There’s no way my parents would let me stay, and I don’t have any relatives here, so it wouldn’t be geshmak,” Ezra remarks.

“What about your second Pesach Seder, Yitzchak?” Dovid wants to know.

“Maybe I could make one alone at my aunt and uncle’s house. I’m not sure where else to go. I’m also wondering about finding an American minyan for the second day of Yom Tov. I’ve heard it’s shver to find a minyan in Bnei Brak, and most of the oilem is going back to the States because of Covid. Nobody wants to spend Yom Tov with strangers. Makes sense. It’s going to be lonely here.”

I try not to sound as nervous as I feel.