Passover 2019: Community burns for leavened food set up in Spring Valley, Ramapo

• Jews are not permitted to eat or own anything leavened during Passover.
• Passover starts Friday night and lasts for eight days.
• Officials ask that people practice fire safety as they prepare for the holiday.

Don't be alarmed if you see clouds of smoke Friday morning in Ramapo — it's likely an annual Passover communal burn.

Ramapo and Spring Valley set up large burn pits so the Orthodox Jewish community can adhere to religious beliefs in a safe manner.

Ramapo's communal burns will take place at Manny Welder Park and the commuter lot on Route 59 that used to be a drive-in movie theater. Officials added a third location this year in the parking lot of Boulders Stadium to alleviate traffic in congested areas.

Spring Valley's burn will be at Memorial Park.

The burn pits will go from 6 a.m. to noon. Officials caution that smoke may cause some air quality and visibility issues in those areas. Previous community burns have drawn thousands of people as they prepared for Passover by burning their chametz, or leavened bread.

"Most of the community does come to it," Spring Valley Hook and Ladder Chaplain Rabbi Justin Schwartz said. "People bring their children and grandchildren to see it. It has that pre-festive flavor."

Schwartz said the Ramapo burns are some of the largest in the country, and other places have learned how to do communal Passover burns from Rockland.

Spring Valley has an open fire pit where people can burn their chametz, while Ramapo uses dumpsters to control the flames.

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Jews are forbidden to eat or own chametz throughout the eight days of Passover, which starts Friday night. This is to commemorate the biblical exodus from Egypt, when the Jews fled slavery without time to bake bread, instead taking unleavened bread or matzo.

Families spend the days before Passover cleaning their houses, cars and work spaces to remove all chametz and the night before conducting a ritualistic search for any remaining chametz. Many put out 10 pieces of bread throughout the house to "find" and later burn. Anything left in the house, including dishes that touched chametz, is then sold for the duration of the holiday and bought back after the holiday ends.

Monsey fire officials have been doing community burns for about two decades and Spring Valley fire officials have held them for about a decade. Prior to making it a communal event, Monsey and Spring Valley fire departments received about 150 to 200 Passover-related calls each year.

"We used to have a big problem because every person used to do their own fire," said Yossi Margaretten, the coordinator of Chaverim. He said the towns and villages chose centralized locations to make it easier for people to come together. "It's a controlled environment," he said.

Chaverim, a volunteer emergency services nonprofit, helped organize the community burns in prior years. But the town and village have taken over operations and start planning the burns more than a month prior to Passover.

Margaretten called the community burns a "better and safer way to do it."

Kaser and New Square also have community burns. Individuals can apply for a permit from town or village halls if they want to burn their chametz at their synagogue or residence.

No individual permits were issued in Spring Valley, Montebello and Chestnut Ridge as of Wednesday morning, and Wesley Hills issued four permits, County Fire and Emergency Services Director Chris Kear said. Ramapo issued 13 individual permits, in addition to coordinating the communal burn sites, he said.

The burns are for bread products only. Plastic bags or other household items, including chemicals or aerosol products, can be disposed of in dumpsters near the fires.

Community burns began decades ago but gained traction about 20 years ago when a child lost an eye because people would not follow safety protocols when building individual fires, Schwartz said.

"People can get hurt," he said, noting that fire departments were often called out to structure fires on the side or back porch of houses. The communal burns reduce property damage and increase the safety of the residents.

Officials are expecting an increase in traffic during the burns. Ramapo and Spring Valley police will assist with crowd and traffic control and volunteer firefighters from Monsey, Spring Valley and Hillcrest will control the fire pits.

If you go

• What: Community chametz burns for Passover
• Where: The commuter lot on Route 59 (former site of the Rockland Drive-In), Manny Welder Park and Rockland Boulders parking lot in Ramapo; and Memorial Park in Spring Valley. 
• When: Friday, 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.

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