Non­fic­tion

The Human Rights Haggadah

  • From the Publisher
September 1, 2019

The Human Rights Hag­gadah inspires thought­ful and time­ly con­ver­sa­tions at the seder by explain­ing how the Passover sto­ry relates to human rights. For exam­ple, when Jacob went down to Egypt, was he a migrant or a refugee? Could Pharoah have turned Jacob’s starv­ing fam­i­ly away? What does slav­ery look like today? Were the ten plagues nec­es­sary to achieve our free­dom or were they tar­get­ed too broad­ly against all of Egypt and against the rules of war? The Human Rights Hag­gadah fea­tures the full tra­di­tion­al text in Hebrew and Eng­lish with full-col­or illus­tra­tions, then adds three types of com­ments. The Rab­bis box­es show how Jew­ish sources address human rights issues. The uni­ver­sal dec­la­ra­tion of human rights box­es explain how human rights ques­tions are resolved in treaties and laws. Final­ly, dia­logue box­es explain these dif­fer­ent view­points and end with ques­tions to dis­cuss. The Human Rights Hag­gadah enrich­es our Passover cel­e­bra­tion with thought-pro­vok­ing, mean­ing­ful ques­tions for 21st-cen­tu­ry Jews.

Discussion Questions