Is This the Largest Passover Seder in the United States?

Lexie Szafranski has been to a lot of Passover seders. But nothing quite prepared her for when Rabbi Berel Goldman, director of Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Student Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville, told her they’d be moving the annual campus seder into a sports arena.

“I thought it was crazy,” said the University of Florida senior from Surfside, Fla., who serves as president of Chabad’s student board. “Sure, it was getting crowded at the Chabad center, and people were spread all over the place, but to rent out the basketball stadium?”

Now she can’'t imagine it any other way.

On Wednesday evening, April 1, Chabad UF will host what organizers say is the largest single-seated Passover seder in the country, drawing an expected 1,500 Jewish students, faculty, alumni, and community members to the O’Connell Center, the campus’s 12,000-seat arena.

The University of Florida enrolls roughly 65,000 students, approximately 10,000 of whom are Jewish. Goldman and his wife, Chanie, moved to Gainesville to establish Chabad UF in 2000. Passover usually takes place during spring break, but not this year, meaning that most students will be on campus during Passover, and organizers are expecting an uptick in attendance.

The seder isn’t just reaching the 400 students that regularly attend the Friday- night Shabbat dinners and other Chabad activities.

“Students who don’t usually celebrate Jewish holidays or come to Chabad events on campus came to me after the seder in the stadium to share how incredible it is,” Szafranski says.

Rabbi Berel Goldman poses with his team of staff and volunteers on the evening before Pesach 2026.

Seder in a Stadium

The move from the Chabad center to the basketball arena began when the crowds outgrew every available space. Three years ago, the seder relocated to the O’Dome—an informal name for the stadium—and this year it returns, larger than ever.

Rabbi Meyer Brook, who joined the Chabad UF staff after marrying the Goldman’ daughter, Mushka, in 2021, handles operations and kosher food in Gainesville. He described the logistical scope of planning the massive seder.

“Weeks before Passover, trucks come bearing all the supplies,” he explains. “Cases of matzah, wine, plastics and everything else you can think of needs to be unpacked and stored in the Chabad center, until the night before the seder.”

Then the team bands together to ensure it goes off without a hitch.

On the busy night before the first seder, when most Jewish families around the world are checking their homes for chametz (Bedikat Chametz) and preparing their homes for the holiday, a staff of 25 and a large group of volunteers organize the food and take positions throughout the floor, setting up each individual place. In the morning, food and seating are arranged as the attendees begin surging in the afternoon.

On the busy night before the first seder, a staff of 25 and a large group of volunteers organize the food and take positions throughout the floor, setting up each individual place.

This year, the pre-seder event,— which takes place before sunset and the onset of the holiday,— will be livestreamed as students are introduced to the program and watch a video of the Rebbe—, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—, with a message on the meaning of the holiday of Passover. They will also have the opportunity to wrap tefillin and light the holiday candles together with thousands of their fellow students.

With microphones prohibited once the holiday begins, each of the four rabbis and rebbetzins serving the students of the University of Florida will take their places on elevated perches in each corner of the room to lead the seder for their sector. In addition to the first-night seder at the O’Connell Center, Chabad UF will host a second-night seder and provide more than 4,000 kosher-for-Passover meals throughout the holiday.

“It’s a massive operation,” acknowledges Brook. “But once the evening begins, and you see the students coming together for the seder in an unbelievable display of Jewish pride, it’s very much worth it.”

For Szafranski, after four years, the magnitude of the annual seder still affects her.

“It’s the most rewarding event of the year,” she said. “It’s just the most electric atmosphere and inspiring experience.”

The seder at the University of Florida, taken before the start of the holiday in 2024.