On April 8, nearly sixty people gathered in the clubhouse of the Chapel Hill condos on Green Rd. to celebrate the Passover holiday. Cantor Regina Lambert-Hayut from Temple Beth Emeth provided the Haggadah, the text that guides the service. Matzah, hard-boiled eggs, bitter herbs, and other traditional foods were served. But the four ritual cups were filled with grape juice, not wine.

Sam and Hugh—because they’re in recovery we’re only using their first names—organized their first “sober seder” fourteen years ago. “I was twenty-three years old and beginning to live a life based on spiritual principles,” Sam recalls. “Some other guys I had known in treatment had fallen away from their faith and some others, without much connection in Judaism, were interested in learning more.”

Hugh says it makes sense to combine Passover’s celebration of the Jews’ freedom from enslavement with  freedom from enslavement to addiction. “Everyone’s trying to find their way back to recovery, trying to find their way to connect to their higher power,” he says, “and holidays can be especially challenging.”

That first event wedged roughly eight people around a tiny table at Sam’s rented townhouse. As the group grew, it moved to his parents’ home and others with more room. Last year’s seder was a hybrid, with some attending virtually on Zoom and others in person on the screened porch in Sam and his wife Cara’s backyard.

This year, both Temple Beth Emeth and Beth Israel Congregation hosted recovery-oriented Serenity Shabbat services, but also approached Sam and Hugh about hosting a community Recovery Seder. So many people expressed interest that they filled the clubhouse and had to close registration. Lambert-Hayut says they plan to move it next year to TBE’s social hall.

“For many of us, spirituality is part of recovery,” says attendee Matt Statman,“so having support from the faith community is helpful and important.”

Statman, who manages the U-M’s Collegiate Recovery Program, is also active in another alcohol-free holiday celebration: the St. Patrick’s Day Annual Sober Skate and Pizza Party at Yost Arena. First organized eleven years ago by U-M students and now co-hosted by the Washtenaw Recovery Advocacy Project, it’s “open to all who are interested in being sober on Saint Paddy’s Day, whether they’re in recovery or not, and every year it’s gotten bigger,” Statman says, “This year there were probably 400 people there.”