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I particularly like this Haggadah, because even though it is designed for children, it has so much for adults as well.
The illustrations by Devis Grebu are wonderful and add a great deal of visual texture to the telling of the story of our people’s exit from Egypt. Passover is all about asking questions and passing our information to our next generation. This Haggadah encourages us to do both.
Children love the book because whether they can read English, Hebrew, or not at all, the art work carries them to many places. Starting with the cover, the book captures one’s imagination. Is that a Matzah? Yes, but isn’t there a city at the top of its jagged edge? Yes! With each page, the story literally, unfolds.
Beginning with an illustration of a chain, children immediately start visualizing how they are connected to what will follow. The first pages open, and open and open, to give background on how to prepare for our special meal. There are beautiful illustrations and descriptions of what is to come. Within every drawing, there are other drawings. All lead the viewer, the reader, the listener deeper into the maggid, the story! And the more interested we are, the more questions we ask.
As we turn the pages, we read the blessings, which are written in Hebrew, transliteration and English. This makes the haggadah very user friendly to ‘all who are hungry and come to eat’ at our table.
If things get quiet, we turn a page and there is a song that is so perfectly tied to where we need to be at that moment. Children are eager to stay involved because they know something special is going to happen on the next page. The story is told in a condensed way, but hitting all of the important factors, and especially allowing adults to share greater details, according to the ages of those present.
Everything in this Haggadah leads our children to greater discussion, deeper questions and more informed connections with our people and our stories. Our hope and responsibility at every seder is to ensure that we continue to add links to our Jewish past, by informing our next generation in the long and amazing journey of our people.
Read on and enjoy adding yourself as our strongest Jewish link at Seder’s end!
Vinny Green is the Religious School K-6 Administrator.
