In some Jewish homes, cleaning and kitchen prep are already underway for Passover, which starts the evening of April 14.

Adherents to strict kosher dietary laws are ridding pantry areas of the "chometz," or leaven, usually found in grain products. And soon grocery shopping lists will include ceremonial foods, from matzo to lamb shanks.

The weeklong holiday, also called Pesach, recalls liberation from slavery in Egypt 3,000 years ago with a mix of sober storytelling and merrymaking tied to a Seder service.

"It’s very family-oriented, you’re all interacting during the course of the service," said Judy Goldman, a member of the new Oahu Jewish Ohana. Goldman co-wrote "The When You Live in Hawaii You Get Very Creative During Passover Cookbook."

Grounded in the liberal Reform Jewish movement, the Oahu Jewish Ohana became a nonprofit last May. It was founded by about 50 families who left Temple Emanu-El over a dispute with its administration.

Led by Rabbi Peter Schaktman, Oahu Jewish Ohana will hold its second community Seder service at 5:15 p.m. April 15 at the Pacific Club.

Organizer Judy Lind said whether a Jew is devout or never attends synagogue, going to a Seder is "part of everyone’s background if they were born or raised Jewish." About half of the 90 or so people who have already signed up for the service aren’t members of its congregation, Lind said.

Henry Trapido-Rosenthal, president of the group, said, "It’s a wonderful communal occasion. It’s fundamentally optimistic," though Jews are directed in the Torah to remember their dramatic exodus in detail.

"What I like about the Seder, the telling of the story, is that we acknowledge we were slaves but we no longer have the slave mentality, Trapido-Rosenthal said. "We are very explicitly free."

"Seder" means "order" in Hebrew, as there are 15 steps described in the Haggadah book followed during the service, according to reformjudaism. org. Interspersed with prayers during the Seder are the reciting of psalms, two hand-washings, sampling of symbolic foods, eating dinner, and the drinking of wine four times — though one sip, not the whole glass, will do, Rosenthal said.

A central part of the service is having the youngest children present ask, "Why is this night different from any other night?," Lind said, noting the answer — because it remembers the origins of Passover.

Israelite history is on display with these ceremonial foods:

» a green vegetable (symbolizing spring) dipped in salted water (for tears shed during slavery);

» matzo, a crackerlike bread without leaven, commemorating the night there was no time to allow the bread to rise before the Jews’ escape;

» a bitter herb, like horseradish, to denote the bitterness of slavery;

» charoset, often a combination of chopped apples, nuts, wine and cinnamon, to resemble mortar that Jewish slaves used to make bricks;

» a roasted egg, a symbol of mourning for the destroyed Jewish temple; and

» shank bone of a lamb, calling to mind the blood of a slaughtered lamb used to mark the door frames of Jews so their firstborn would be protected from a plague of death.

Only the lamb shank is not usually sampled, Rosenthal said. Still, its presence is important to the storytelling. Rosenthal, Lind and Goldman admitted to using the same lamb bone, stored in their home freezers, for the past decade or so for their family Seders. Laughing, they explained that lamb shanks, especially kosher ones, are hard to find in Hawaii with its small Jewish population.

Lind added, "One year we thought we lost it (the bone), and it was like we lost our best friend. We thought, what are we going to do without it?"

The matzo bread consists of three separate parts. The middle piece, called the afikoman, is the last food eaten at the service. This piece is hidden for children to find to keep them involved in the Seder. "Until they find it, the service can’t end," Rosenthal said.

The meal eaten at a Seder service can be a regular dinner — without any leavening, shellfish or pork — which usually includes a few tastes of the ceremonial items, he said.

Goldman is in charge of acquiring a Torah for the Oahu Jewish Ohana, "the biggest deal" for a new congregation, Rosenthal said. "It’s expensive and hard to get … and it gives us gravitas."

A Torah is a long scroll handmade of sheepskin on which the five books of the Old Testament are inscribed by hand, said Goldman, who is looking at a restored scroll on which every letter has been inspected. It was written before World War II and costs about $20,000.

"I like the idea of it being a used one because of the continuity" of its history," Goldman said.

The cost for the event is $65 for members and $75 for nonmembers. The last day for reservations is April 9.

For more information, call Judy Lind at 398-1875 or email at oahujewishohana@gmail.com.