LAWRENCE — Students at Esperanza Academy studied more than English and math this week. The 62 students at the all-girl middle school learned about the Jews' exodus from Egypt at a model Seder meal.

Passover begins at sundown on April 19 and ends April 26. On the first two nights of the festival, Jews celebrate the Seder, a meal that includes storytelling and symbolic foods.

Sherry Comerchero, director of the Jewish Literacy Coalition, led a model Seder at Esperanza, which included roasted shank bone representing the paschal sacrifice at the temple; bitter herbs for the bitterness of the slaves' lives; haroset, a mixture of fruit, nuts and wine that represents the mortar the Israelites used to make bricks for the Pharaoh's building; and vegetables such as celery or parsley, which are dipped into saltwater to symbolize the tears shed by the slaves.

Comerchero, who started the Merrimack Valley Jewish Coalition for Literacy in 2002, directs a dozen literacy volunteers at Esperanza.

Esperanza is an Episcopal school and most of the students are Roman Catholic; others are Protestant and Buddhist. Students attend daily chapel and the school hosts a monthly Eucharist, which students have an option to attend.

"We want to learn about different faiths, religions and traditions so we can understand," said Lori Bottiger, Esperanza's headmaster. "It's the differences that can bring us together."