A Little Sun, a Little Surf and a Nice Seder

Ask Mark Goldenberg about his Passover whereabouts in the past and his answer sounds like a travelogue of lovely vacation spots.

There were Aspen and Hawaii, Bermuda and Palm Springs, as well as Tucson, Scottsdale, San Diego and Puerto Rico. With this year’s holiday starting Wednesday night, he is heading soon to an Aventura, Fla., resort.

A Beverly Hills pediatric dentist who is also a cantor, Goldenberg has led Passover group Seders for resort packages that combine family vacations and religious observances. They are part of an increasingly popular trend of spending the eight-day Jewish holiday of freedom as a getaway -- with kosher food and Passover trappings provided.

“This gives people the best of both worlds,” said Goldenberg. “They can have a traditional Passover and have a vacation in a beautiful setting.”

And, he and others say, it is also a way to avoid some of the heavy workload that observant Jews face for Passover at home, such as scrubbing kitchens, changing dishes, boiling pots and preparing special foods that contain no traces of leavened products. Instead of cooking for a crowd, you can be served matzo ball soup and gefilte fish from a hotel’s rabinically supervised kitchen.

After all, Passover marks the liberation from slavery.

Many Passover vacation tours are organized by commercial tour operators who say competition has grown recently.

In the past, their most common Passover vacation sites were in Florida, New York’s Catskills and Israel. Now, to keep up with seasoned and affluent travelers, some tours head to more far-flung U.S. beaches, mountains and deserts or to Costa Rica, Spain and France.

“Just like real estate, Passover programs are driven by location,” said Jeanne Litvin, operator of Los Angeles-based Passover Resorts, which is expecting about 550 customers at two resorts next week. Prices start at $2,800 per adult for nine nights at her San Diego program and $3,500 at Lake Las Vegas.

But some Passover retreats are organized by nonprofit religious organizations. The Passover Institute at Camp Ramah in Ojai, which is run by the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, offers religious services and lectures along with swimming, yoga and campfires.

“The retreat gives families a chance of getting away and doing that in the context of a Jewish holiday,” said Camp Ramah’s executive director, Rabbi Daniel Greyber.

The camp, which is expecting about 160 people next week, is affiliated with Judaism’s Conservative movement but also attracts Orthodox families. So, it has two kinds of prayer services: an Orthodox one with women and men sitting separately and a mixed-gender “egalitarian” one.

Its community Seders are led by its scholar-in-residence, Rabbi Bradley Artson, dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism. As at many Passover resorts around the world, the camp also allows guests to conduct semiprivate Seders at their own tables in a shared room.

The first two and the last two days of Passover require Sabbath-like restrictions for the devout. But the other four days are open to all sorts of activities -- whether soaking in a spa in Ojai or, in the case of one luxurious tour, strolling through museums and palaces in Venice, Italy.

Deborah Singer, who has attended Passover sessions at Camp Ramah twice before, said part of the appeal is scheduling. Since she and her husband, Chaim, would take time off from work anyway the first and last two days of Passover, it made sense to turn the whole stretch into a Camp Ramah vacation with their 3-year-old daughter.

“We like it because it’s very casual and it’s a great place for kids,” said Singer, an attorney for the Los Angeles County counsel’s office who lives in the Pico-Robertson area.

But, in one of the few possible downsides, guests have to realize they can’t do everything they might do at home, such as allowing Seders to last all night. “It would be antithetical to the holiday to keep the wait staff until 3 in the morning,” she said.

For eight days and nine nights at Camp Ramah, the price for an adult in a basic cabin is $1,515, with higher costs for other rooms.

Commercial packages, including many ocean cruises, generally are more expensive.

The base price for nine nights at the Aventura resort where Goldenberg is headed is $3,600, plus airfare and taxes, said Lynda Clare, one of the owners of Presidential Kosher Holidays. (Goldenberg barters his cantorial service for a family vacation. “I sing for my supper,” he quipped.)

Besides the communal Seders, entertainment and guest speakers are offered at many resorts. Gil Graff, historian and executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles, will be a scholar in residence at the Aventura hotel. Radio talk show host and author Dennis Prager is scheduled to lecture at a Scottsdale hotel that Clare’s firm also runs.

Clare said her Passover business has grown from 68 rooms at one location 15 years ago to 600 rooms this year at three sites, including Dorado, Puerto Rico.

Contributing to that rise, she said, are more multi-generational family reunions, with grandparents sometimes treating everyone to converge from around the country.

Litvin, of Passover Resorts, said such packages appeal to families in which both spouses work outside the home. Besides preparing for Passover, it takes a lot of effort to “keep the house livable” for eight days, she said.

Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, said such Passover vacations don’t violate rules or traditions. In fact, he commends them for bringing families together and making it easier to follow dietary restrictions.

“It is a family-oriented holiday,” he said. “It makes perfect sense to me that people go away with family and friends and observe the holiday.”

Resort advertisements assure potential customers that kitchens and dining rooms meet Passover and kosher rules. A rabbi and assistants conduct frequent inspections, and potential customers are invited to discuss those issues in advance with a rabbi, the tour operators say.

Keeping a kitchen kosher for Passover takes some extra effort in Ixtapa, Mexico.

Food is purchased in Mexico City and moved in refrigerated trucks to the Club Med beach resort six hours away where Le Voyage Travel has run a Passover program for six years, according to firm president Raphael Bellehsen in Cedarhurst, N.Y.

If kosher-conscious customers ask, Bellehsen provides names of the shops where the matzo and meat were bought and gives tours of the kitchens.

And he also lets people know about the other aspects of modern Passover travel: sailing, archery, tennis and kayaking.