Tagged Haggadah

He wanted to encapsulate Beijing’s Jewish community in a Passover Haggadah. The coronavirus complicated that.

Artist Leon Fenster says this page of his Beijing-themed Haggadah aims to capture the traditional Haggadah’s "curiously non-chronological form of storytelling." (Courtesy of Fenster)
March 19, 2020 / Alan Grabinsky, JTA

(JTA) — Unlike Shanghai or Hong Kong, which received Jews fleeing from World War II, Beijing does not have a robust Jewish history. In the words of Joshua Kurtzig, former president of the Reform congregation there, the massive Chinese capital is a “very transient city,” especially for Jews — meaning… Read more »

From 1600s Europe to a lesbian feminist seder, these 4 Haggadahs are a trip through Jewish history

A children's Haggadah from 1945 compares draws parallels between the Passover narrative and the Holocaust. (Yeshiva University Museum/Center for Jewish History)
April 15, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — From graphic novel Haggadahs to a Donald Trump-themed one, if you’re looking for a certain kind of guide to the Passover seder, chances are it’s out there. Recent years have seen a proliferation of political, environmental, family-friendly,  or just plain irreverent Haggadahs, but the urge to… Read more »

The 5 (or so) habits of successful seder leaders

(Lior Zaltzman)
March 30, 2017 / Edmon J. Rodman

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — What kind of leadership style works best for a seder? During a period when we are experiencing a shake-up in national leadership, you may want to re-examine the relationship that exists between leader and participants at the Passover meal. Though seder leaders and participants are… Read more »

Priceless 14th-century Spanish Haggadah will be big draw at New York museum
April 17, 2012 / Mike Addelman, University of Manchester, UK
Detail from medieval Spanish Haggadah (Courtesy University of Manchester)

A fourteenth-century Jewish religious book, preserved by experts at The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library, hand delivered to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it will be on exhibit through Sept. 30. The masterpiece from Catalonian Spain will feature in a special installation called… Read more »

On Passover, celebrating the Exodus in the desert — in Moab, Utah
April 10, 2012 / Matthew Weinstein, JTA
It's Seder time in Utah in the Passover in the Desert of Moab program. (Jeff Finkelstein)

MOAB, Utah (JTA) — How do you open the door for Elijah when your Seder is outdoors in the middle of the Utah desert? That was one of the challenges facing the 260 people who came from all parts of the country to participate in the fifth annual Adventure… Read more »

Painting lives: Artist helps clients mark pivot points, from Bar Mitzvah dreams to a dying wish
April 9, 2012 / Lisa Keys, JTA
Artist Lori Loebelsohn paints what she calls 'life-cycle portraits.' (Courtesy Lori Loebelsohn)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Lori Loebelsohn enters other people’s lives at pivotal moments: a marriage, a milestone birthday, a Bar Mitzvah. Armed with a pen and a notebook, she discusses intimate details about the inner lives of those she has just met: their passions, their most significant memories, their… Read more »

Haggadah covers tell family’s Passover saga
April 8, 2011 / Helen Zegerman Schwimmer, Special to the AJP
For decades, Helen Zegerman Schwimmer has recorded Seder menus, guests and more inside the covers of her family’s Haggadot.

As night falls and we begin to recount the story of our ancestors’ exodus from Egypt another more personal story unfolds between the covers of my Passover Haggadah. Some years ago I purchased a dozen copies of the KTAV edition so that we would all be on the same… Read more »

Passover feature: In the spirit of the Mishnah, freeing up the Seder
March 21, 2011 / David Arnow, JTA

SCARSDALE, N.Y. (JTA) — You can find the secret to creating lively Passover Seders in a surprising place — an 1,800-year-old law code called the Mishnah. For starters, the Mishnah did not envision reciting a Haggadah at the Seder. Instead, it designed a careful balance between aspects of the… Read more »