Rec­om­mend­ed Reading

Hag­gadah High­lights 5784/2024

Simona Zaret­sky
April 12, 2024

Seder plate, 1977

Hadas­sah Col­lec­tion on Long Term Loan to the Amer­i­can Jew­ish His­tor­i­cal Society

Passover falls lat­er this spring than it does nor­mal­ly. Adar II gives us more time to stock up on our pre­ferred matzah fla­vors and shapes, or per­haps grab a yahrzeit can­dle always inex­plic­a­bly stocked in the Passover sec­tion of the gro­cery store. As we pre­pare the ele­ments of the fes­tive meal, bedeck our seder plates, and gath­er those cush­ions for reclin­ing, we are also met with the task of decid­ing which Hag­gadah to use. 

Each year new Hag­gadot come out, and many of us still have famil­iar, old­er ones, too (Maxwell House Hag­gadah, any­one?). This year’s cohort includes Hag­gadot based in US his­to­ry, a tru­ly psy­che­del­ic one, and a pow­er­ful sup­ple­ment that reflects on Octo­ber 7th. Which Hag­gadah do you place on your table? Send us an email at info@​jewishbooks.​org to let us know! 

If you’re curi­ous to see oth­er Hag­gadot pub­lished in the past sev­er­al years, check out our Hag­gadah High­lights 5783/2023, Passover 5782/2022 Hag­gadah Roundup, and Passover 5781/2021 Hag­gadah Roundup. And to dig a lit­tle deep­er into the long life of this Jew­ish text, find out more with A Brief His­to­ry of the Hag­gadah.

The Promise of Lib­er­ty: A Passover Hag­ga­da by Stu­art Halpern and Jacob Kupietzky

“In The Promise of Lib­er­ty: A Passover Hag­ga­da you will find, along­side the tra­di­tion­al Hag­ga­da text, how Amer­i­can abo­li­tion­ists and artists, pil­grims and pres­i­dents, rab­bis and rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies, jazz crit­ics and gen­er­als found inspi­ra­tion in the Exo­dus story.”

Yedid Nefesh Hag­gadah by Joshua Cahan

“Yedid Nefesh Hag­gadah presents the full tra­di­tion­al text with clear guide­posts and instruc­tions, translit­er­a­tion, and con­tem­po­rary trans­la­tions. It has an ele­gant and intu­itive design, with orig­i­nal art­work by artist Tilla Crowne.”

Taste & See: Psy­che­del­ic Pesach Zine by Madi­son Mar­golin, Eden Pearl­stein, and Ami Sil­ver, illus­trat­ed and designed by Jes­si­ca Tamar Deutsch

“By reimag­in­ing Jew­ish prac­tice through psy­che­delia, we invite you to get cre­ative, to blend col­lec­tive tra­di­tion with per­son­al truth. In this spir­it, we have col­lab­o­rat­ed, crowd­sourced, curat­ed, and cowrit­ten this psy­che­del­ic Pesach companion.”

Empow­er­ing Seder Con­ver­sa­tions Passover Hag­gadah by Eitan Ash­man and Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Voices

“The Empow­er­ing Seder Con­ver­sa­tions Passover Hag­gadah presents clear and inspir­ing insights to fos­ter broad inclu­sion and engage­ment at the Seder.”

Check out Shalom Hart­man Insti­tute’s In Every Gen­er­a­tion: A Hag­gadah Suple­ment for 5784, with reflec­tions and rumi­na­tions from our con­tem­po­rary world and the rit­u­als of Passover this year. 

And for the Swifties and Hebrew-read­ers check out The Unof­fi­cial Tay­lor Swift Hag­gadah!

Simona is the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s man­ag­ing edi­tor of dig­i­tal con­tent and mar­ket­ing. She grad­u­at­ed from Sarah Lawrence Col­lege with a con­cen­tra­tion in Eng­lish and His­to­ry and stud­ied abroad in India and Eng­land. Pri­or to the JBC she worked at Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press. Her writ­ing has been fea­tured in Lilith, The Nor­mal School, Dig­ging through the Fat, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. She holds an MFA in fic­tion from The New School. 

More from Simona Zaret­sky
passover
hol­i­days
exo­dus
moses
Related Reading