BOSTON (JTA) -- Francine Hermelin Levite and Edgar Bronfman have been using
unique versions of the Passover Haggadah for years. Now both have decided to
publish their versions of the Exodus story.
Hermelin Levite, 43, the mother of three school-aged
children, is the author of “My Haggadah: Made it Myself,” an interactive version
for children of the ritual-laden book that is now available on Amazon.
Bronfman, 84, the
business giant and Jewish philanthropist, offers “The Bronfman Haggadah”
(Rizzoli) illustrated by his wife, the artist Jan Aronson.
Hermelin Levite's
journey to publishing a Haggadah began about eight or nine years ago when she
joined some unaffiliated young Jewish families living in lower Manhattan who
were banding to create a Passover celebration. Growing up in Detroit, Hermelin
Levite says she enjoyed lively and inspirational seders led by her father, who
followed the traditional haggadah embellished by music he composed and other
innovations. But she knew it was not a universal experience.
Hermelin Levite, a
one-time journalist, educational software developer and graphic designer,
volunteered to compile the haggadah. She said it had to resonate with kids and
families of multiple backgrounds.
She also was motivated by the needs of her young son,
who has severe food allergies to nuts, chicken and wheat.
“He was allergic to the
food of Passover,” she recalls thinking and vowed to create a seder in which he
could participate.
Hermelin Levite recognized that children communicate
in various ways.
“The book is designed to invite artistic expression
ranging from simple stickers to more complex collage and discussion,” she said,
adding that her husband, also a graphic designer, helped with the images.
Over the years, her
do-it-yourself, hands-on haggadah has become popular through word of mouth. Last
year she decided to self publish and was amazed with the number of orders from
far-flung locales such as Budapest and Hong Kong.
This year, with a grant
from Reboot, a nonprofit that supports innovative projects to engage young,
unaffiliated Jews, Hermelin Levite is traveling across the country introducing
the haggadah to new audiences. The spiral-bound haggadah will appeal to kids
with all levels of knowledge of Jewish observance.
To illustrate the
passage of the four children -- the wise, wicked, simple and silent -- the
haggadah offers four blank faces in which kids are asked to draw the
personalities of guests at their seder. Blessings are written in Hebrew with
English transliteration.
In retelling the Exodus story, children are presented
with an empty suitcase and asked to think about what they would take if they had
to leave in a hurry. Hermelin Levite hopes the provocative questions spark
conversation.
She
credits her Jewish education and a family that fostered a love of Jewish
experience with the inspiration for creating the haggadah.
“I used to think I was
an accidental children's book author,” Hermelin Levite wrote to JTA in an email.
“But given my upbringing, professional path and journey raising my kids,
[writing the haggadah] seems to make the perfect sense.”
Bronfman, too, has fond
memories of his childhood seders as joyful gatherings of family, but says they
were uninteresting, uninformative and rote. Over his lifetime, dissatisfied with
the available haggadahs, he has cut and pasted passages from various versions to
create more engaging seders in his own home. A few years ago he decided to
create his own haggadah.
“I wanted to get all the words right,” he said.
The popularity of
Passover offers a unique opportunity, he tells JTA.
“We have a chance to
teach young people what Judaism is about,” Bronfman said.
Children's author Eric
Kimmel, the author of “Wonders and Miracles,” a Passover companion filled with
art that in 2004 won a National Jewish Book award, applauds that spirit.
“If the traditional
version doesn't work for you, come up with something else,” he advocates, with a
nod to the tradition but also with a dose of disrespect, he adds with a laugh.
“What's important is to follow the biblical injunction to tell your children the
story of Passover.”
“The Bronfman Haggadah” is written entirely in English
-- Bronfman quips it's to appeal to most American Jews, who do not know Hebrew.
The reading takes about an hour-and-a-half. Unlike the traditional haggadah,
Bronfman includes Moses, who he holds as a role model of a leader who asks
questions and disrupts the status quo. But all the characters of the Exodus,
including God, are represented as metaphor and not historical facts, he writes.
Welcoming Elijah the
prophet earlier in the seder underscores the Jewish value of welcoming in
strangers, Bronfman says.
New words to the popular song "Dayenu" express
gratitude for establishing a homeland in Israel. Bronfman ends the seder with a
call for spiritual peace in Jerusalem among Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and
Arabs, and all warring peoples.
Notably, Bronfman expands the narrative of the
traditional haggadah to include the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount
Sinai. While the foundation of Jewish law is the theme of Shavuot, he
acknowledges that most Jews are unaware of the holiday that follows Passover.
“Freedom doesn't
mean anything without the responsibility of law,” Bronfman tells JTA. “To be
free is a privilege we too often take for granted.”
Aronson, who has fond
memories of Passover seders growing up in New Orleans, spent nearly a year
working on the illustrations for the "Bronfman Haggadah," determined to avoid
cliched images. To keep the images fresh -- and to entertain youngsters -- she
changes up the artistic styles from one page to another -- some are realistic,
others abstract or geometric -- and also varies the mood and colors. A biblical
map of the Exodus depicts the possible routes traveled by the Israelites.
For the Ten Plagues,
Aronson draws a large singing insect that will capture the attention of
children. Miriam's tambourine is vibrantly colored with long flowing ribbons
that complement the joy described in the narrative as the Israelites escape
bondage.
The winner of the Sami Rohr Literary Prize—which, at
$100,000, is one of the most generous literary awards in the world—won’t be
announced until April, but many of the finalists, along with some 150 writers,
editors, and publishers, attended the National Jewish Book Awards, held last
night at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan. Sitting for dinner at what
people took to calling the “Rohr Kids Table,” writers, both nominated and not,
gossiped nervously about the five finalists: Francesca Segal (The Innocents),
Ben Lerner (Leaving the Atocha Station), Stuart Nadler (The Book of Life), Shani
Boianjiu (The People Forever Are Not Afraid), and Asaf Shurr (Motti). “If you
don’t hear by 10 a.m., you didn’t get it,” said Allison Amend, a novelist and
Rohr finalist in 2011, to Boianjiu, who was visiting New York from Israel. 
