Non-Traditional Haggadah - 1944

Non-Traditional Haggadah - 1944

Non-traditional haggadah published by the Vaadat HaChagim of the Kibbutz HaArtzi - sharp, vivid mention of the events of the time: Holocaust, immigration, Jewish police guard [notrim], the Arab enemy, Yemenite immigrants, etc.

Along with the traditional texts regarding the exodus from Egypt, there are texts expressing the new settlements' complete surprise at the events of the Holocaust relative to the renewal of settlement of the Land of Israel years before: "Our shoes are off before the camp to breach the locked gates ... until we reached the ground ... and we put in a peg to prepare its dust and put an end to the darkness of the exile ..." In contrast: "The distress grew and increased and a wave of evil arose ... and it is seven-times more threatening ... in the scattered of Israel they wanted to destroy them from being a nation as they hadn't been for generations and Israel is once again a sheep scattered on the fields of destruction, wandering between the borders, degraded in the ghettos, trampled by the boot of tyrants." It then includes touching text in rhyme, that opens with the words "With the cries of our children in the shadow of the scaffold,"  referring to the children killed in the Holocaust: "We did not hear the anger of the world because You chose us from all other nations ... the Norwegians, Czech, British ... and when our children walk to the scaffold, Jewish children, wise children, they know that their blood is not considered blood - they only call to their mothers, "Don't look!" ... you chose us from all the children to be killed in front of Your Throne ... and You gather our blood ... because we have no one who gathers us other than You ..." Includes a Yizkor text for the Holocaust victims "who were taken out to be killed publicly for no wrong, because they are from the seed of the Jews, who were drowned in the waves of evil in the paths of their wandering and their hearts full with the vision of going up to their homeland."

These texts are followed by some references to the existential threats in face of the Arab enemy in Palestine and reactions to the Jewish settlement: "This is the fifth Seder night that we sit, when outside the sword of war causes bereavement. And if, as a minor crime, the threat has receded from our threshold, but the conspiracy from within is great ... because the enemy plots against our enterprises and evil plots desire to stain our reputation in the world and hit our level of conquest from the back. The plot will not be fulfilled! ... Our brethren the soldiers and "notrim" and defense force who are with us now ... we send our blessings ... and blessed will be our brethren the new immigrants, the few survivors of the terrible inferno and our brethren who have returned from Yemen ... if only tens of thousands will follow in your footsteps ..."

32 pages. Illustrated jacket title page. Stains on the binding and some leaves. Fine condition.