Szyk Hagaddah
Encyclopedia
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
Haggadah that was illustrated by the Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk was a graphic artist, book illustrator, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
between 1934 and 1936. Szyk's visual commentary on the ancient story of Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
uses the vocabulary and format of an illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
; each of his 48 full-page watercolor and gouache illuminations contains the traditional text of the Haggadah (in Hebrew calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
), which is clarified and interpreted by the images and symbols on the same page.
Szyk first looked for a publisher for his Haggadah in mainland Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in the mid 1930s but found that his contemporary telling of the Haggadah was met with skepticism. Publishers in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, for example, were reluctant to publicize a book that drew a direct parallel between the contemporary policies of Nazi Germany and the genocidal tactics of the pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
of the biblical Book of Exodus. (Szyk did take the partial step of painting out the more obvious political references, such as the swastikas on the armbands of the ancient Egyptians who oversaw the Hebrew slaves. Other details, such as the Hitler moustache on the Wicked Son of "The Four Sons", remained.) Ultimately, the publishing house Beaconsfield Press was founded in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1937 for the express purpose of publishing The Szyk Haggadah. Szyk moved from Lodz
Lódz
Łódź is the third-largest city in Poland. Located in the central part of the country, it had a population of 742,387 in December 2009. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is approximately south-west of Warsaw...
, Poland, to London to supervise every aspect of the book's production. Upon official release of the 1940 vellum edition, which was limited to 250 numbered copies and sold for US$500, The Szyk Haggadah was cited by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London as "worthy to be placed among the most beautiful of books that the hand of man has produced". The Haggadah was dedicated to King George VI of England, who received one of the first copies.
The Szyk Haggadah has been reproduced in popular trade editions in Jerusalem and elsewhere since 1956. A new luxury limited edition, produced by digital printing and with an updated translation and commentary by Byron L. Sherwin, was published in 2008 by Historicana in Burlingame, California. The documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
"In Every Generation: Understanding The Szyk Haggadah", directed by James Ruxin, documents the history of The Szyk Haggadah and its contemporary remaking.
External links
- The New Edition of The Szyk Haggadah (April 15, 2008)
- The New York Sun, "The Szyk Haggadah, Revived and Illuminated", Gabrielle Birkner, April 18, 2008
- The Jewish Journal (of Greater Los Angeles). "The classic Szyk Haggadah becomes a modern masterpiece of the digital age", Tom Tugend, April 17, 2008
- Jewish Week (New York), "'Szyk Haggadah' Goes High-Tech", Sandee Brawarsky, April 16, 2008
- The Jerusalem Post, "Drawing on Experience", Tom Tugend, April 11, 2008
- Amphora, "The Szyk Haggadah", Rollin Milroy, October 2007
- Forward, "Illuminated Tales", March 23, 2007