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Anthony Valenza, a sixth-grader at the Catholic St. Bartholomew School in Bethesda, has become philosophical about the meaning of the foods he eats during the school's re-enactment of the Jewish Seder, such as the bitter parsley that reminds Jews of their days of slavery in Egypt.

"I thought it wasn't the best-tasting thing. But it's bitterness, so what are you going to do?" said Valenza, 11, a Potomac resident.

St. Bartholomew and the Catholic Woods Academy, also in Bethesda, have decided to incorporate the traditional Jewish Passover ceremony to enhance their students' religious understanding and appreciation of the roots of Jesus Christ's Last Supper and Easter they study in the classroom. The Seder at St. Bartholomew is taking place today, while the Woods Academy Seder is taking place Thursday.

In addition to getting a taste of the charoset (chopped apple and nuts), hardboiled eggs and matzoh, students learn the meaning of Jewish prayers at the table, act out the different roles family members play during the Seder, and draw connections to the New Testament. The Seders at Woods Academy and St. Bartholomew typically last about an hour.

"The children have to know from whence they came, so to speak," said Mary Worch, Head of School at the Woods Academy.

Sister Nina Larocca has been conducting Seders at St. Bartholomew since the early 1980s for the students in the fifth through eighth grades. Different students take on roles in the Seder traditionally played by specific members in Jewish families, such as the youngest child who asks the questions related to the Jews' flight from slavery under the Pharaoh, and why the foods are different from those eaten on other nights.

Some changes to the Seders at the school are made, such as swapping out red wine for grape juice, as a concession to more modern legal strictures.

"Many of the children have a lot of Jewish friends, so maybe some of them have participated," Larocca said. "That's part of their heritage too. Jesus was a Jew."

Some parts of the service are naturally popular. St. Bartholomew eighth-grader Giuseppe Rebaudengo, 14, of Germantown, noted that in past school Seders students have eagerly grabbed the leftover matzoh and charoset at the end of the re-enactment.

"We like to eat. We're very hungry kids," he said with a laugh.

At the home of Jewish friends, Woods Academy sixth-grader Lauren Thomas enjoyed locating the bread, or afikomen, that is hidden at the start of the Seder for children to find in exchange for prizes. Woods Academy religion teacher Gina Swanda has hidden slices of white bread inside library books.

"It's kind of like hide-and-seek," said Thomas, 12, of Bethesda.

Alison Branitsky, 13, a Woods Academy seventh-grader who will be participating in her first Seder at the school, has attended Seders held by Jewish relatives, and from that experience can easily see the parallels between the story of Exodus and the Jewish traditions and the last days of Jesus Christ.

"The same tradition has been passed down and the same beliefs are still alive," said Branitsky, a Potomac resident.