Haggadah. Seder in the Marianas. Passover 5705-1945.

(HAGADAH)

949th Engr Avn Topo Co

Mariana Islands (West Pacific Ocean)

1945

Illustrated. Text in Hebrew and English.

Yudlov 3943; Yaari 2319.

The verso of the title reads: “Adapted for use at the Passover Seder for Soldiers, Saliors and Marines- Pacific Forward Area. Officiating Chaplains: David I. Cedarbaum, AUS; Philip Lipis, USNR; Elihu Rickle, USNR.” Thus, this historic Hagadah was a joint venture of an Australian Jewish chaplain, Cedarbaum, and Lipis and Rickle of the US Naval Reserve. See Philip S. Bernstein, Jewish Chaplains in World War II in: American Jewish Year Book, Vol. 47 (1945-6), pp. 190, 194. By April 1945, the war in Europe had ended with Allied victory, but the Pacific Theater, was yet to see its deadliest days. The final land battle of World War II took place a mere 350 miles from mainland Japan, on the island of Okinawa, which, by the time it was finally secured in June of 1945, 12,000 US soldiers and Navy personnel lay dead, and more than 36,000 wounded.