Poll: 81% won't buy bread on Passover

Court ruling keeps public's sentiment unchanged towards eating leavened food during holiday
Kobi Nahshoni Yedioth Ahranoth 04.17.08, 10:54
Passover is one of the quintessential "hosting" holidays; some have dozens of guests around the seder (festive dinner) table, but most of the public prefers celebrating Pesach with their closest family at home, the weekly Ynet and Gesher Institute survey shows.

Acting Out

A third of the population will celebrate the seder with family or friends, while a few will choose a hotel getaway or a vacation abroad.

Half of the survey's participants will not shop for groceries during Passover, with businesses taking advantage of the precedential ruling and selling leavened goods, and most of them will ban those stores even after the holiday.

The Ynet-Gesher survey was conducted by the Mutagim company and included 500 interviewees constituting a representative national poll of the elderly Hebrew-speaking Jewish population in Israel.

During the first part of the survey, participants were asked where and with whom they intend to spend the seder this year.

Fifty-six percent said they would spend a family seder at home, 29% will spend it at relatives, 3% prefer being with friends, an additional 3% will spend it with family at a hotel and 2% will travel abroad with family or friends. The remaining participants were undecided or refused to reply.

Almost identical results
Segmentation into religious definitions shows almost identical results in all sectors. However, 7% of the seculars will dine with friends compared to 0%-2% among other participants. Oppositely, 4% of the haredim said they will spend the Seder abroad compared to 1% among the seculars.

The media is having a field day, the religious politicians are fuming, but what will the average citizen do now that the court ruling allows selling bread during the holiday?

Fifty-two percent of the participants said they will make sure not to buy at a store using the permit, 31% neither on Passover nor afterwards, and 21% during Passover only. An additional 29% will not buy leavened goods but other groceries. Oppositely, 15% expressed satisfaction with the ruling, making it easier for them to find bread during the holiday.

A result analysis shows that only 29% of the seculars are happy with the option of buying leavened goods more easily. The rest will only buy other goods in these stores (48%), will not enter stores at all during holiday (12%) or prefer other stores even after Passover (6%).

Thirty-nine percent of the traditionalists will prefer not to enter these stores at all during the holiday, 33% will do the same after the holiday and 20% will only purchase unleavened goods during Passover as well.

Quizzes and games
And how will we spend the seder night? Twenty-three percent said they would play quizzes and games on Passover-related themes in addition to reading the Haggadah and sitting down for the festive dinner. 18% said they will incorporate current affairs into the traditional text and an additional 18% said they will omit irrelevant sections.

Shoshi Becker, director of Gesher Jewish Education Programs, says that a third of the secular population wants to purchase leavened goods and not bother for such convenience, but the survey proves that "most of the public still sees Judaism as the desired characteristic of Israel as a Jewish state."
Becker beckoned the public to incorporate elements that would emphasize holiday content in addition to reading the Hagadah, saying: "The gathering of family and Jewish people around the seder table is relived each year.

In order to continue the uniqueness of Passover as a holiday shared by the entire Jewish nation, one must shed light on holiday content and the Hagadah as well as incorporate discussions and meaningful experiences linking the present with the Exodus from Egypt, liberation and holiday traditions."

Michel Dor contributed to this report