30 | APRIL 2 • 2020 

COURTESY OF COHEN FAMILY

to adding more to this year’
s 
edition. “
After all, would it be 
so terrible if the Haggadah 
was 500 pages long? Not to 
me.”

ADDING MEANING AND 
A MODERN FEEL
After using the Maxwell House 
Haggadah growing up and 
then children’
s Haggadot 
when she and her husband, 
Howard, had their two 
children, Gail (Nachman) 
Greenberg of Oak Park was 
interested in searching for 
something more meaningful. 
Greenberg, a member and 
director of Lifelong Learning 
at Temple Kol Ami in West 
Bloomfield, found what she 
needed at Haggadot.com. 
Greenberg likes that her 
Haggadah can be changed or 
updated each year online to 
reflect new thoughts. One-
quarter of the Haggadah is 
her own creation, and the rest 
is sourced.
Instead of using a standard 
Haggadah like most Jewish 
families, Don Cohen of West 
Bloomfield (husband of JN 
Story Development Editor 
Keri Guten Cohen) decided 
about 10 years ago to compile 
his own. 
He revises it yearly, pick-
ing the best parts of several 
interesting Haggadot, striving 
to be topical and including 

original or rewritten song 
parodies. It was important 
for Cohen, a member of 
Congregation B’
nai Moshe 
in West Bloomfield, to keep 
the traditional structure of a 
Haggadah and the Hebrew 
prayers as well. 
“I want a modern feel and 
interpretation that covers the 
traditional bases,” Cohen said. 
For singing — a big part 
of the seder — Cohen places 
a Bluetooth speaker in the 
middle of the table and plays 
music to keep people on track 
or a song for them to join in. 
The Haggadah songs range 
from “Mi Shebeirach” and 
“Miriam’
s Song” by Debbie 
Friedman to “We’
ve Got 
to Get Out of This Place” 
by Eric Burdon and The 
Animals.
“
At different points, I dis-
tribute musical instruments 
for people to play,” Cohen 
said.
For more fun, he displays 
posters in the dining room, 
such as one for the film The 
Prince of Egypt. Cohen once 
bought 20 copies of The Prince 
of Egypt Haggadah.
He and Keri welcomed 
their first grandchild in 2019. 
With a nod to Moses in the 
basket on the Nile, “we put 
Lily Grace in a basket and 
passed her around the table,” 
Cohen said. 

Don Cohen added his granddaughter’
s face to this classic artwork of Miriam 
placing Moses in the Nile as a Passover greeting card.

Lincoln Shopping Center

GREENFIELD and 10½ MILE

Advance America

ALDI

Bling Bling • Book Beat

Conservative Cuts

Dollar Castle

DTLR • Dr. Lazar

J Anthony

Lee Beauty Supply

Metro PCS

Metropolitan Dry Cleaners

Mookey’s Beans & Greens

Original Bread Basket

Paper Goods Warehouse

Rainbow

Street Corner Music

Step In Style • Suit Depot

T Nails • Top That

White Castle / Church’s Chicken

Jews in the D continued from page 28

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28_DJN040220_PO Compiling Haggadah March 26.indd 30
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