#haggadah

Pesach Greetings!

For Passover 2022, we present some pages from a Haggadah with illustrations by the  Lithuanian-born American graphic artist Ben Shahn (1898-1969) published in Boston by Little, Brown and Co. in 1965. Shahn originally created eleven of the twelve full-page color plates for this Haggadah over the course of six months circa 1930. The illustrations, like those executed for his secular works, highlight the struggle against oppression, a theme central to the story of Passover. The figures depicted were modeled after the Jews of Djerba, whom Shahn had encountered during a year-long journey through North Africa.

After an unsuccessful attempt to print the Haggadah in color, Shahn sold the plates which eventually entered the collection of The Jewish Museum in New York. Nevertheless, in 1958 Shahn met Arnold Fawcus, proprietor of the Paris-based fine-press facsimile publisher Trianon Press, and the two agreed to seeing the Haggadah project through to completion. Shahn produced a twelfth illustration, added ten drawings for the scenes of the popular children’s Passover song Had Gadya (An Only Kid), and designed a frontispiece and title page, while Fawcus commissioned British scholar Cecil Roth to compose an introduction and notes, and reuse Roth’s own 1934 translation of the Haggadah text. The Trianon Press production was produced as a deluxe limited edition of 228 copies signed by Shahn. Our Little, Brown copy is a trade edition of the Trianon production, and is a monument to the skill of one of the twentieth century’s most famous Jewish artists.

Sameach Pesach!

Viewour other Passover posts.

View our other posts on the work of Ben Shahn.

A nice chicken I encountered in the margins of a Haggadah, the ‘Ashkenazi Haggadah,’ with commentaries attributed to Eleazar Ben Judah of Worms, c. 1430.

The British Library

vculibraries:

Chag sameach! Happy Passover!

Striking illustrations, including women with books, may be found in this beautiful facsimile edition of Die Darmstädter Pessach-Haggadah  

Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library

ir-hakodesh:

The Venice Haggadah

Printers: Giovanni di Gara, together with the publisher and proofreader Israel ben Daniel ha-Zifroni

Venice, Italy, 1609

letterpress, woodcut, and watercolour on paper, H: 35; W: 23.5 cm

This Haggadah was widely used in 17th-century Europe. It includes commentaries on the Hebrew text in three languages - Ladino, Yiddish, and Italian - as it was intended to serve diverse Jewish communities in Italy and across Europe.

here’s my 2018 haggadah in all it’s glory!

if you are interested, you can use the source code to typeset it for yourself from the github page here.

discardingimages:

Haggadah deer and Haggadah dog

carmen figuratum, Haggadah for Passover (the ‘Ashkenazi Haggadah’), Germany ca. 1460.

BL, Additional 14762, fol. 14r

I made these fun graphics for the #Friendseder haggadah for The Well, a cool Jewish outfit from Detroit. Can you figure out what parts of the Seder they are? Check it out at friendseder.com.

#Friendseder: It’s like Friendsgiving but with plagues.

A few of the illustrations I made for the HIAS Haggadah. This Haggadah provides stories and prompts to help us connect to the contemporary refugee experience on the night where we remember our own journey from suffering to freedom. You can download it at hias.org/passover or buy a paperback copy at amazon.com/dp/1091939942.

I made a haggadah! I had the privilege of working with author Shawn Becker to make his Passover haggadah a reality. He wanted a haggadah that was bright, engaging, thought-provoking, and accessible to all, regardless of Jewish knowledge or previous seder experience. It’s non-traditional in many ways but remains rooted in the historic structure and rituals of the night. He provided the text and inspiration and I designed and illustrated the book in a style that was a bit of a departure for me. Pick up your own copy at sharingtheseder.com.

Pages from the Bezalel Haggadah: woodcut by Maty Grünberg(1986)

Chag Pesach Sameach [Passover Greetings] from GWUSCRC

Here’s an illustrated Haggadah, or Passover liturgy, for children. First published in Germany in 1933, this Haggadah includes several movable parts and a poignantly literal take on the traditional “Next year in Jerusalem.” Click hereandhere to see two of the illustrations in action.

Die Haggadah des Kindes (Berlin: Menorah, 1936), with German translation by Abraham Moritz Silbermann, illustrations by Erwin Singer and music by Arno Nadel.

From the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection.