Paging through Jewish history

The Chagall Haggadah: Marc Chagall put his unmistakable stamp of dreamlike, ethereal images on a series of illustrations that covers the entire Exodus rather than Passover alone. (The Exodus, 1987)

By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 7, 2002

A collection of the religious manuals called Haggadot chronicles several histories simultaneously: Passover observations, the Jewish people since the 15th century, and bookmaking, printing and art.

ST. PETERSBURG -- "Freedom Illuminated: The Haggadah" is an exhibition that fairly bursts from its confines on the second floor of the Florida Holocaust Museum.

Its organizers could not have foreseen the recent escalation of violence in the Middle East when scheduling it months ago, and in light of current events, "Freedom Illuminated" may strike some as too polemical, not to mention political. But this show is a trove of historical and artistic experiences that can be mined by museumgoers of many ages and any faith.

At its core is the Haggadah, the service book that Jews have used for centuries to tell the story of Passover. The 300 or so on view are a visual treasure for book lovers.

As a Haggadah guides the faithful through the ritual seder, this exhibit takes viewers on a journey through the history of the Jewish people from the 14th century, when Haggadot (the plural form of Haggadah) first appeared as entities separate from prayer books, allowing for more elaboration of the Passover rituals. The exhibit also illustrates the Jewish people's role in the world at seminal moments in history. Further, it demonstrates the history of bookmaking and of social and artistic movements that influenced these books.

The earliest Haggadot in the collection are facsimiles, not originals -- which are so rare they have a value somewhere between that of the Book of Kells and a Gutenberg Bible -- but these are very fine reproductions with hand-colored illuminations.

Bezalel Haggadah: Bold, spare lines in Maty Grunberg’s illuminations engraved on cherry wood blocks reduce the familiar images of a seder dinner to abstractions in this Haggadah. (Seder Plate, 1984)

In the 15th century, the craft of printing made Haggadot available to more Jews, as Bibles were to Christians. Beginning in the 16th century, more stylistic variety showed up in the texts, depending on whether they were printed in northern or southern Europe.

Historically, these books demonstrate the resilience of a people persecuted by those of different religious or cultural backgrounds. Or even, sometimes, by their own rabbinical councils, as illustrated by a section in the exhibition that deals with censorship.

The theme of persecution reaches a powerful climax in the part of the exhibit on the Holocaust and Haggadot published in Europe in the 1940s. Gone are the lavish illustrations and priceless materials. The books become simple, solemn reminders of faith facing annihilation.

The post-World War II Haggadot represent increasing cultural plurality, especially in American versions that even incorporate advertising and sponsorships by commercial giants such as Coca-Cola and Maxwell House coffee.

A wonderful surprise waits at the end of the gallery: about a dozen 20th-century Haggadot created by artists as limited editions. The variety of interpretation open to artists creating Haggadot is seen in Arthur Szyk's illuminated manuscript that draws from techniques used in the Middle Ages, David Harel's politically charged Zionist illustrations, Ben Shahn's modernist stream-of-consciousness drawings and Maty Grunberg's calligraphic wood block prints. Prints glowing with color by Marc Chagall line one wall, telling the story of the entire Exodus rather than "the more limited story of the Passover," he told his publisher when approached to do a Haggadah in the 1960s.

Dr. Herbert Wollowick, the show's curator, and Holocaust Museum director Stephen Goldman have done a fine job in creating an exhibition that leads the viewer along the main narrative while allowing for interesting footnotes, such as the case displaying the difference in paper quality from one century to the next. It is not a huge show -- you will need no more than an hour to investigate its elements -- but it is one worth returning to.

Museum visitors, especially those accompanying youngsters, should be aware of the graphic material in the exhibit on the other side of the second floor gallery space: "A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto -- A Birthday Trip in Hell, the Photographs of Heinz Jost."

Jost was a German Army soldier stationed in Poland in 1941. On Sept. 19, his 45th birthday, he wandered into the Warsaw Ghetto, where thousands of adults and children were living in increasing deprivation and desperation, dying of starvation and disease, a place supposedly off-limits to most military personnel. He took more than 100 photographs but did not make them public, not even showing them to his family, until the 1980s.

Exhibition material states that no one knows why he took them in the first place, why he kept them secret and why he finally decided to release them. But they are remarkable. After years of seeing documentaries about the Holocaust, I thought I was inured to its horror, but these photographs left me sad and sickened for days. Especially those of the children will not easily be forgotten.

- Lennie Bennett can be reached at (727) 893-8293 or at lennie@sptimes.com

"Freedom Illuminated: The Haggadah -- A Mirror of Jewish History" is at the Florida Holocaust Museum, 55 Fifth St. S, St. Petersburg, through Aug. 4. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. General admission is $6. Seniors and college students with ID, $5. Students under 18, $2. For information, call (727) 820-0100.

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