Sheinson, Yosef Dov. Musaph le-Hagadah shel Pesach ["Supplement to the Passover Hagadah"]. With seven woodcuts by Miklos Adler ("Ben Benjamin")

AUCTION 37 | Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 91
(HAGADAH).

Sheinson, Yosef Dov. Musaph le-Hagadah shel Pesach ["Supplement to the Passover Hagadah"]. With seven woodcuts by Miklos Adler ("Ben Benjamin")

Texts in Hebrew and Yiddish prepared by Yosef Dov Sheinson - a survivor of the Kovno Ghetto. Each page surrounded by illustrated borders pp. (28). Original pictorial wrappers. 4to

Munich: Hiistadruth Tziyonith Achidah and "Nachem" 1946

Est: $3,000 - $5,000
PRICE REALIZED $10,000
This Hagadah was issued under the auspices of the United States Third Army with the assistance of its chaplain, Rabbi Abraham J. Klausner. The front cover is inscribed: "First Hebrew text published in post-Hitler Germany." Contains heart-wrenching illustrations depicting the parallels between the Jewish suffering under the German Nazis and the Hagadah’s story of Jewish oppression in Biblical Egypt. The Hagadah has a “gallows-humor” and biting wit. For example, the traditional passage "Baruch shomer havtachatho le-Yisrael" [Blessed is He who keeps his promise to Israel] now reads: "Blessed is he who keeps his promise to Israel and composed the White Paper and forbade Aliyah," an allusion to the British betrayal of the promise made to the Jewish People in the Balfour Declaration. Rather transparent is the message to the "She'erith ha-Pleitah" in the Displaced Persons camp in Munich, to resist the temptation of resettlement in the West but rather focus upon Aliyah to Eretz Israel. The American Jewish Historical Society recently produced a facsimile edition of this Hagadah, called "A Survivor's Hagadah."