Hi. My name is Lenore Bell,
and I'm director of the library at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Today I'll be talking about one of the items in
the library's collection, a Passover haggadah.
The title is Die Haggadah des Kindes,
or in Hebrew, Hagadah li-yeladim, the Children's Haggadah.
The Haggadah is the liturgical book that is used at the seder,
which is a festive meal and ceremony
that is conducted during the Jewish holiday of Passover.
The Hebrew word "haggadah" actually means "telling,"
so the text of the Haggadah includes retelling
of the biblical account the ancient Isaraelites'
enslavement in Egypt and thier exodus from Egypt.
This Haggadah was published in 1933
in Berlin, and it's a reflection
of the resilience German Jewry at the time that they
were still publishing liturgical books and other
types of Judaica despite the increasing persecution
by the Nazis. So let me say a few words about the cover.
It's very colorful, obviously appealing to young children,
and it includes the opening words
of a passage traditionally recited by youngest child at the seder,
"Ma nishtana," a or what is different about this night
from all the other nights? It also includes two symbols
from the Passover festival: Pesach,which is
the Paschal Lamb, which was sacrificed in ancient times,
and also maror, which is the bitter herb that is consumed at the seder
to remember the bitterness of slavery. The book includes many
beautiful illustrations and magnificent typeface
but it's also very special because it is a pop-up book.
So here we have the early story
of Moses, where he's placed in the river
to be found by Pharaoah's daugther, and here we have the Egyptian armies
that perish when the Red Sea closes upon them.
This final image is a scene
of the typical family celebrating the seder in their home,
and we have a special tradition
of hiding the afikoman, the piece of
matzah, which is the unleavened bread consumed at the seder.
It'ss hidden away for the end of the ceremony
to be eaten by the participants so that when they leave the ceremony
they leave with the taste the bread of affliction in their mouths.
The custom is that the afkoman is hidden,
and you see it hidden right here, and then the child
goes to look for it under the table,
and then he finds it
and is rewarded in finding it. This is one many traditions in the seder,
which are intended to engage the child so that he will learne and experience
the entire ceremony. This I haggadah has a very interesting
provenance. It was donated to the museum by
a cantor in Massachusetts named Alan Kritz.
Cantor Krtiz manages the
genizah in his community. A genizah is a \ storage
where worn and damaged Jewish sacred
and liturgical books store until they may be ritually
buried. The book was given to the cantor by a gentleman named Doctor
Ernest Picard. Dr. Picard has fond memories
of using this had haggadah in Germany and also
in the United States. When Cantor Kritz received the book, he recognized that the
destiny of this book was not to be buried but rather to be preserved
in a museum. So when he contacted us, I immediately
recognized the title because we already have two copies in the Museum,
but it wasn't until we received the book that I realized it had its own special story.
It had a personal inscription on the inside of the front cover.
The inscription was written by grandparents to their grandson
and it reads as an ethical will:
"This haggadah is to teach you that you are of
noble descent and that you should honor your belief as long as life's breath is
in dwelling.
Be assiduous. Keep your modesty.
Be your parents' faithful child. Avoid contact with evil doers.
Do not close your eyes to indigence.
Hate injustice so you will find favor
in God's sight."
One of the missions the Museum
is to rescue, the evidence of the Holocaust, to preserve it
and to make it accessible for future generations.
I like to think that this haggadah was rescued twice:
It was rescued when Dr. Picard took this very treasured
book with him upon fleeing Germany, and it was rescued again
when Cantor Kritz recognized it belonged in
a museum where it could be studied
appreciated by visitors.