Through all the centuries of Jewish life around the world, the Haggadah has arguably been the most popular work of Jewish religious literature. Contemporary statistics show, for example, that there are more Jews who attend a Seder than who make an appearance at a synagogue on Yom Kippur.
According to most knowledgeable sources, the oldest known version of the Haggadah is in the famous 10th-century siddur of Saadiah Gaon. Other early surviving versions include those found in Machzor Vitry (11th century) and the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah (12th century). The first Haggadah printed in the United States, Service for the Two First Nights of the Passover in English and Hebrew, was compiled by Solomon Henry Jackson (1837), a Jewish immigrant from England.
It is not surprising that this broad popularity has extended to Judaica collectors and investors, for whom collecting haggadot has long been a matter of intense interest.
Part of the fascination may be attributable to the variety and breadth of the material, ranging from the earliest printed haggadot to early American haggadot; from pieces of crude haggadot handwritten in concentration camps during the Holocaust to mimeographed versions printed in the internment camps in the aftermath of the Shoah; from Zionist-themed haggadot celebrating the birth of Israel to haggadot written on non-observant kibbutzim in Eretz Yisrael; and from modern illustrated haggadot with extensive Torah commentary to the latest American haggadot, many of which have little to do with Passover, promoting instead such contemporary political themes as feminism, animal rights, and the environment.
Though I do not collect actual haggadot, I am always thrilled when I come across historical correspondence referring to haggadot – and they are not easy to find. Here are four of my favorite items from well-recognized public figures, each highlighting a particular Haggadah.
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In the April 19, 1971 correspondence on his White House letterhead featured on this page, President Richard Nixon writes to Earl Mazo (this is not a misspelling, though it would have been fun, in our context, were his name “Matzo”):
The beautifully bound and illustrated copy of The Haggadah, which you and your friend, Lou Poller, bought for me in Jerusalem, is a treasured addition to my personal library. I am most grateful for your kindness in presenting me with this sacred book of the Jewish faith, and I hope you will express my appreciation to Mr. Poller for his generosity as well. With kindest personal regards.
Mazo (1919-2007), a Jewish political correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and The New York Times, was a close friend of Nixon’s who wrote Richard Nixon: A Political and Personal Portrait (1959), at the time considered one of the definitive biographies of Nixon.
He accompanied then-Vice President Nixon on his 1958 trip to Venezuela and wrote a dramatic account of how the Secret Service saved Nixon from a mob intent on dragging Nixon from his car and killing him.
When John Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election by a razor-thin margin over Nixon, Mazo, convinced the Democrats had stolen the election, went to Illinois and Texas, found proof of voting fraud there, and published four parts of a proposed twelve-part series before Nixon asked him to stop writing the series because America could ill afford a constitutional crisis at the height of the Cold War.
Failing to convince Mazo, Nixon called the reporter’s bosses at the Herald Tribune, who pulled Mazo off the story.
Born in Warsaw, Mazo immigrated to the U.S. as a child, graduated from Clemson University and served in the Army Air Corps. During World War II he accompanied Patton’s army across France into Germany as a reporter for Stars and Stripes, and after the war served a year in the Truman administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense before going to work at the Herald Tribune.
Lou Poller, who specialized in laundering money, was a close associate of legendary organized crime leader Meyer Lansky, the “Mob’s Accountant” who headed the notorious enforcement syndicate Murder, Inc. and laundered Mafia funds.
In 1958, Poller fronted for Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters in taking over the Miami National Bank, which the Teamsters acquired through Arthur Desser, a link between Hoffa and Lansky. When Lansky, under investigation for tax evasion, fled to Israel in July 1970, Poller went with him. It’s likely he purchased Nixon’s Haggadah during his trip to Israel with Lansky.
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In the June 23, 1969 correspondence on his Minister of Defense letterhead shown here, Moshe Dayan writes in French to Professor Ernesto Canarutto:
Mr. Max Grossman gave me your precious invaluable gift – the Haggadah de Paque, printed in the year 1629.
All haggadot express, for the most part, the burning aspiration of our people for liberty – the desire which has never died out throughout the generations, and which has been fulfilled in our days.
This book that you have kindly forwarded to me is one of the oldest that survives, and this is why it not only has value as a historic document but it is also, through its drawings and comments, integrated into the religious tradition.
I truly regret not being able to see you during your stay in Israel, but I hope that we will see you during your next visit.
With my most cordial thanks and with my profound esteem.
Sincerely yours,
Moshe Dayan
In 1609, an extraordinarily beautiful Haggadah, which was originally printed in three versions (Ladino, Yiddish, and Italian), was published by Israel ben David Zifroni, a printer of Hebrew books in Italy and Switzerland. The 1629 second edition, which almost certainly was the one given to Dayan, includes Leone Modena’s commentary Tzli Esh, which was based on Don Isaac Abravanel’s commentary Zevach Pesah. Its highlights include the famous 13-panel illustration of the stages of the Seder (Kadesh u’Rechatz, etc.) and the ten-panel interpretation of the ten plagues, which became fixtures in illustrated haggadot.
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Exhibited here is the frontispiece of the renowned Szyk Haggadah, the magnum opus of the great Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk (1894 – 1951), which consists of 48 full-page watercolor and gouache illuminations accompanied by the traditional text written in beautiful Hebrew calligraphy.
Clearly manifesting Szyk’s great affection for his Jewish heritage and his passions for illuminated miniature painting and history, the Haggadah constitutes a prime example of his medieval and renaissance style, which is characterized by his great attention to the most minute detail and demonstrates his passion for rich, bright color.
The Szyk Haggadah, which is universally considered one of the most beautiful books ever produced, was at the time of its publication the most expensive new book in the world, with each of the 250 limited-edition vellum copies selling for the then-astronomical sum of $500.
(Full disclosure: I can only dream of actually owning a copy of this rare and most extraordinary work and, unlike the other collectibles I feature in my Jewish Press columns, the image shown here is from an early and attractive copy and not an original.)
Szyk began drawing caricatures of Hitler soon after his rise to power, including a drawing of the Führer dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh, and Nazi anti-Semitism became a primary theme in his Haggadah. For example, he painted the “wicked son” as a man sporting a Hitler mustache dressed in German clothes; he painted swastikas on the armbands of the Egyptian overlords torturing the Jews and also on desert serpents; and he depicted Jewish slaves in Egypt as European Jews in chains.
He also portrayed graphic violence in some of the folios as, for example, when Moses bashed the Egyptian who was abusing a Jewish slave, reflecting the artist’s strong support of a militant Jewish response to the Holocaust. However, his dramatic and unambiguous analogies between Nazi brutality and Pharaoh’s genocidal policies made it difficult for him to find a publisher. The Haggadah was finally published in 1940 after Szyk compromised and agreed to soften the intensity of his portrayals, including particularly the removal of the swastikas.
Scholars still debate whether he yielded to pressure from his publisher or to pressure from British politicians pursuing a policy of appeasement with Hitler’s Germany.
The dedication page of the Haggadah, which Szyk cleverly dedicated to the reigning English monarch, King George VI, shows an exhausted mass of Jews blocked by a British military warship from gates inscribed “Zion” – an impassioned plea to British leaders to permit Jews to enter Eretz Yisrael.
In a beautiful yet subtle way, the artist thereby clarifies that the ultimate purpose of the Egyptian Exodus was God’s desire to bring the Jews to Eretz Yisrael and to have them dwell there forever as a Torah-observant nation, a lesson it would stand us well to remember as we sit at our own Seder tables this year.
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Finally, following the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt signed by Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat in March 1979, Knesset Member Yitzchak Yitzchaki wrote to Rishon L’Tzion (Chief Sephardic Rabbi) Rav Ovadia Yosef with a unique request: that the historic agreement between Egypt and Israel be added to the Passover Haggadah.
Rav Yosef answers with his characteristic beauty and brilliance:
From the day of the Exodus out of Egypt, many events befell the Jewish nation, and Hashem, may his name be blessed, expanded his goodness toward us, and the Israelites won, “For Hashem will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.” And all this is mentioned in one paragraph of the Haggadah, “Vehi She’Amda La’Avoteinu….”
Therefore, my opinion is that there is no need to mention in the haggadah specifically the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, even though in our times it is a great event and we hope that with the help of Hashem the day will come in the near future when all the Arab countries will join the peace treaty, as it says in Proverbs “When a man’s ways please Hashem, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” “and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make [him] afraid.”
May Rav Yosef’s berachah and the words of Jeremiah quoted at the end of his letter come to fruition and may this year see the end of our bitter 2,000-year galut. May we have no further need to recite L’shanah Ha’baah b’Yerusalayim at the end of the Haggadah in years to come because we will all already be in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the coming of Mashiach.
A chag kasher v’sameach to all.
