By JOSEPH W. F. STOPPELMAN

President Lauds
America-Israel
Cultural Work

Ronna Hape Serlin
to Marry in Spring

(Copyright, 1964, Jewish Telegraph Agency, Inc.)

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with tightly intertwined tails,
of crowing cocks and strange
birds nestling among the orna-
ments that fill the margins.
These pages are veritable
jewels of medieval artistry, of
a charming naivety, primitive
in conception and execution,
but always brilliant in coloring.
They abound in human figures,
from Adam and Eve in Para-
dise and Joseph escaping from
the temptations of Potifar's
wife, to the plagues and the
triumphant Exodus. If any-
thing, this riches of human
representations makes it clear
that the medieval Jew, in con-
tradiction with the general be-
lief, did not hesitate to intro-
duce the human figure in the
illustrations for his ritual
books. Figurative art seems,
in fact, to have been quite
popular among the medieval
Jews of western Europe!
Another remarkable Hag-
dah now easily accessible
through the refined repro-
duction possibilities of our
day, is the so-called "Kauf-
man Haggadah," published by
the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences in 1957.
David Kaufmann, a Hungar-
ian Jew who lived from 1852
till 1899, found this manuscript
among hundreds of documents
he rescued from the immense
"genziah" treasure of Cairo, dis-
covered in 1896: the buried
remnants of Hebrew writings
comprising some 200,000 manu-
scripts and fragments of manu-
scripts that cover a period of
more than 1,000 years!
The Kaufman Haggadah is in
a rather dilapidated state, with
many of its pages torn or crop-
ped, and several that suffered
badly from moisture. Like the
Sarajevo manuscript, it was
more likely written in north-
ern Spain, round about the year
1370.
The illustrations are beauti-
ful, often showing much better,
more 'advanced' draughtsman-
ship than those of the Sarajevo
Haggadah. Yet, they have a
disturbing quality to the Jew-
ish onlooker. It is, for in-
stance, a little strange to find
an angel depicted with the
typically Christian "halo"; or
to see Jews praying without a
tallis, their heads uncovered,
kneeling and pressing their
fingers together in the accept-
ed non-Jewish praying style.
Some scholars have offered
a solution to this problem,
namely, that the artist who il-
luminated this wonderful manu-
script was not a Jew, but most
likely a Christian illustrator
working too independently from
the Jewish scribe who wrote
the text.
The faces, dresses, shoes of
the people shown in this Hag-
gadah tells us clearly that the
medieval Jew readily adopted
ther hair and dress styles of
the period and the country in
which he happened to live, in
this case southern France, or
northern Spain, round about the
town of Barcelona. Many illus-
trations in the Kaufman manu-
script show this "foreign" in-
fluence very strongly, at the
same time emphasizing that the
illustrator was a far more
thorough worked and a consid-
erably greater artist than the
scribe. For the text suffers
from many hastily made cor-
rections, as well as from dele-
tions and repetitions.
Another Haggadah is the
so-called "Darmastadter Pes-
ach Haggadah," written and
illustrated in Bonn dring the
latter half of the 15th cen-
tury. This parchment, too,
has been published in full
color reproduction. Here the
miniatures are outstanding
for the great skill with which
they were drawn; they are, in
fact, far more original than
most Haggadah illustrations.
Their creator was a famous

German artist, Feilbusch
Reiner; he worked in Bonn
during the second half of the
15th century, and is much
less of an imitator of non-
Jewish illuminating art than
was the majority of his con-
temporaries.
Can anything more enhance
the intimate pleasure of the
Seder evening than to read
the service out loud from such
a centuries-old Haggadah, to
follow the clearly written words
on those parchment pages that
have been seen by countless
eyes? Or to look leisurely, when
the service is over, at the quaint
illuminations strongly remin-
iscent of medieval murals, to
recognize the pictures of the
ten plaques, the drowning of
the Egyptian pursuers . . . so
very different from the severe
black-and-white engravings that
meant "Pesach" to me in my
youth — yet so very much alike
in feeling and significance?

NEW YORK, (JTA)—Presi-

dent Johnson commended the
America-Israel Cultural Founda-
tion for promoting cultural ex-
change between Israel and the
United States and paid tribute
to Robert S. Benjamin in a
message sent to the Foundation's
annual concert at the Americana
Hotel.
Benjamin, chairman of the
United States Committee for the
United Nations and chairman
of the board of United Artists,
received the Foundation's an-
nual award for his contribu-
tions to cultural exchange and
the Foundation's programs for
Israel's cultural life. Samuel
Rubin, president of the Founda-
tion, presented the award, a
plaque.
Some 1,200 guests attended
the dinner and $200,000 was
raised for the Foundation's cul-
tural programs to Israel.

MISS RONNA SERLIN

The engagement of Ronna
Hope Serlin to Jerry Herbert
Shulak is announced by her par-
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Serlin, 1405 Balmoral.
Miss Serlin attended Western
Michigan and Wayne State uni-
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B G Calls Neumann
`Closest to My Heart'
of American Zionists

-

TEL AVIV (JTA)—"Emanuel
Neumann is one of the few
Hebrews in America and is the
closest to my heart among
American Zionists," former
Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion declared in a message
to the 70th birthday celebration
for Dr. Neumann at ZOA House.
Among those attending were
Moshe Sharett, chairman of the
Jewish Agency Executive, and
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, presi-
dent of the World Zionist Or-
ganization.
In his message to Dr. Neu-
mann, which was read to the
gathering by Liberal Knesset
Deputy Joseph Serlin, Ben-
Gurion, who was unable to at-
tend because of poor health,
said:
"In my concept of Zionist or-
ganizations, I would say that
Neumann is the only Zionist
in the United States. But I do
not allow myself to argue with
others considering themselves
Zionists."

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One of the great joys of my
early youth in The Netherlands
formed part and parcel of the
Seder evenings. It was the
privilege of handling my fa-
ther's Haggadah, a somewhat
ragged book over a hundred
years old, and of looking as
long as I liked at the quaint
engravings that illustrated the
text.
Years later this early experi-
ence with my father's old book
filled me with the desire to
discover what the Haggadot
had been like at which chil-
dren of long-forgotten genera-
tions must have gazed with an
awe and a wonder akin to
mine. And in the course of
time I have had ample oppor-
tunity to fulfill that wish.
The Art of the Sarajevo
Haggadah
•Take, for example, the case
of the so-called Sarajevo Hag-
gadah. Less than 70 years ago
no one knew of its existence
outside the Cohens, a Jewish
family of Spanish extraction
which for several generations
had lived in Sarajevo, then the
capital of Bosnia. The book
had for centuries been a family
heirloom, loved and treasured;
but in 1894 the sudden death
of the family's breadwinner
forced his widow to realize
whatever "valuables" she pos-
sessed. Thus the manuscript
was offered for sale, and im-
mediately acquired by the Bos-
nian National Museum where
it stayed till the occupation of
Sarajevo by the Nazis, in April
1941.
By this time the "Sara-
jevo Haggadah" had attained
such international fame that
the Germans, among the first
measures they took, ordered
the surrender of the manu-
script. Fortunately the mu-
seum director, forewarned,
smuggled the Haggadah out
of the building only an hour
or so before the Nazi envoy
came to claim it; and until
the fall of Nazism the book
was safely hidden in a re-
mote village where no one
knew of its presence. Now it
is back in its old place and,
despite the rather secluded
geographic position of Sara-
jevo, more accessible to you
and me than most medieval
Haggadot.
A beautiful facsimile of the
entire manuscripe and its gor-
geous illustrations and illumi-
nations appeared last year in
New York, its value to the lover
of medieval art greatly increas-
ed through the historic study
and explanatory notes which
Cecil Roth, f a m o u s Jewish
scholar, added to it.
The children of the Cohen
family in Sarajevo must have
had grand times looking at the
colorful pages of their precious
Haggadah, and wondering at
the sketches—in deep blue and
red ink—of fantastic animals,
half dog half fish, of dragons

31 - TH E DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, March

Illuminated Ancient Haggadot

