MARCH 23 • 2023 | 55
55 | MARCH 23 • 2023 

PASSOVER

I

n a year that has witnessed the 
publication of fewer new Haggadot 
than in past years, two distinctive 
ones have appeared in time for Pesach.
One, from the United States, offers a 
unique division of the seder night text; 
the other, from Israel, a linguistic twist.

FOUR VOICES
First up is Haggadah Min HaMeitzar 
— A Seder Journey to Liberation: A 
Traditional and Radical Haggadah in 
Four Voices by Gabriella Spitzer (Ben 
Yehuda Press, 138 pages, $24.95).
According to Jewish tradition, the 
holiday best known in Hebrew as 
Pesach has four names: Chag Pesach, 
Zman Cheiruteinu, Chag haAviv and 
Chag HaMatzot.
They refer to, respectively, God 

passing over the houses of the Israelites 
in Egypt on the night of the exodus, 
the freedom the ex-slaves experienced 
then, the season of spring when the 
crossing of the Red Sea took place and 
the unleavened matzahs the now-free 
people baked when their dough did not 
have time to rise.
These names are frequently discussed 
and explained at the seder.
Now Spitzer, a visual and textile artist 
in Boston, has arranged her Haggadah 
around the four themes, complete with 
her original artwork — 27 striking full-
color drawings and illustration.
The text of the book, which includes 
color-coded discussion questions and 
“discussion prompts” from an eclectic 
blend of Jewish and non-Jewish sources, 
focuses on “four voices” that correspond 

to Passover’s four names:
• The Festival of Freedom: “A 
progressive voice … of liberation and 
oppression ... still deeply relevant today.”
• The Springtime Festival: 
“An environmental voice making 
connections between the Passover seder, 
ecology, and regrowth and regeneration. 
Their voice shares naturalist sources 
and Torah from the Earth.” 
• The Matzah Festival: “A voice 
about embodiment and the tangible and 
sensory aspects of the seder.”
• And Passover: “The voices that 
get shared and the voices that do not 
get shared enough. Everything is new 
in each generation, and we are tied to 
every previous generation before us.”
Spitzer adds, “My inspiration in 
developing the four voices is the 

Two new distinctive Haggadot 
from America and Israel make 
their debut.

New Haggadot 
for 5838

STEVE LIPMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

This Year in 
Ukrainian

An international humanitar-
ian agency that specializ-
es in assisting, educating 
and feeding endangered, 
often-isolated Jews in 70 
countries, the American 
Jewish Joint Distribution 
Committee (JDC), the over-
seas partner of the Jewish 
Federation of Metropolitan 
Detroit, over the last century 
has published some dozens 
of books that document and 
augment its activities.
Among them, several 
Haggadot typically used 
at seders under the Joint’s 

auspices; often in countries 
where communism had 
barred the printing or dissem-
ination of such Jewish fare.
In 1948, the “overseas 
arm of the U.S. Jewish 
community” published the 
JDC Haggadah, featuring a 
cover illustration of Moses 
leading the Israelites into 
the Promised Land, for use 
by Holocaust survivors 
in DP camps. In other DP 
camps, other JDC-produced 
Haggadot were used.
In 1992, a Hebrew/Russian 
Haggadah shel Pesach 
(Zhivaya Agada in Russian; 
Living Haggadah) was dis-
tributed to the Jews of the 

former 
Soviet Union, 
where open 
expression of Judaism had 
become permitted when 
communism collapsed the 
previous year.
In 2010 came In Every 

Generation, a Haggadah 
telling “the biblical tale of 
Jewish freedom and redemp-
tion” that featured the Joint’s 
archive of rare photographs, 
letters and documents.
And in 2018 and 2019, 
Entwine, the JDC’s young 
adult engagement initia-
tive, issued a “Reordered” 
Haggadah-patterned “toolkit” 
as a guide for young seder 
leaders and participants, 
complete with readings, 
explanations, recipes and 
stories.
In other years, the JDC 
supported the printing of 
Haggadot in some of the 
languages of Eastern Europe 

continued on page 58

Robby Berman. 
ABOVE: Berman’s 
Haggadah

continued on page 56

JDC 
Haggadah

