Passover is almost here, and the Aleph Institute is making sure no one gets left out. They’re shipping thousands of Seder plates, Haggadahs, and over 8,000 lbs of matzah to correctional facilities around the world, all rooted in the Rebbe’s simple but powerful belief: no Jew should ever be forgotten.
Every spring, Rabbi Mendy Katz trades his normal routine for a few weeks in a New Jersey shipping warehouse. As director of outreach programs for the Aleph Institute, he’s the guy making sure hundreds of Passover shipments – matzah, maror, Seder plates, Haggadahs – actually make it to correctional facilities across the country. The operation runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and most of the people he’s helping will never meet him. He’s totally fine with that.
“For prisoners, it means the world to them to know that someone cares,” he says. “They know they haven’t been forgotten, and we’re there to help them – materially and spiritually.”
This year, Aleph is sending out over 400 Seder plates, 2,000 Haggadahs, 8,000+ lbs of matzah, and 2,750 packages of macaroons, gefilte fish, and other holiday foods. The gratitude they get back is real. One New York inmate wrote to Rabbi Katz: “It is not easy… Knowing that there are people out there who care about us is very uplifting.”The reach goes well beyond the U.S., too. Aleph ships Passover supplies to over 40 remote prisons worldwide — from India and Belarus to Malaysia, Taiwan, and Spain. And 1,400 families of incarcerated individuals will receive shmurah matzah as well.
How It All Started
The Aleph Institute was founded in 1981 by Florida Chabad emissary Rabbi Sholom Lipskar, inspired by the Rebbe’s vision that prisoners deserve dignity — and a real shot at turning their lives around.
“The Rebbe was very much ahead of the curve,” Lipskar said in a 2018 profile. “He saw what was happening, and he pressed that prisoners be treated with dignity and given educational opportunities so they could use their time for the better.”
Rabbi Lipskar passed away last spring. His nephew, Rabbi Aaron Lipskar, now serves as CEO and has grown Aleph’s work considerably. Today, the organization touches nearly every part of the justice system — from alternative sentencing in courtrooms to re-entry support and preventive education programs.
“The Rebbe encouraged education as a preventive measure instead of punishment,” says Rabbi Aaron Lipskar. “That’s a major focus for us.”
And while Aleph is a Jewish organization, their help isn’t limited to Jewish people.
“We care for everyone, regardless of religious affiliation or ethnicity,” he says. “We put a huge emphasis on family unification. We even recently launched a program focused specifically on incarcerated women, some of whom have given birth in prison.”
‘To Return Them to the Good Path’
The Rebbe believed prison, at its core, should be about education and rehabilitation — not punishment. At a 1985 farbrengen attended by Rabbi Lipskar and a group of Jewish inmates on a federal religious furlough, he laid it out plainly: the goal of incarceration is “to return them to the good path” so that when they’re released, they can start fresh — and maybe even help others do the same.
Aleph carries that mission year-round. But the Jewish holidays hit differently inside a prison, and Passover most of all.
The Rebbe wrote to Jewish inmates as early as 1977: “When a person finds himself in a situation of ‘after sunset’… one must not despair. The darkness is only temporary, and it will soon be superseded by a bright light.”
Passover doesn’t ask whether the people at the Seder table deserve to be free. It just asks them to remember what freedom feels like — and to pass that story on.