Two very rare Haggadahs are 250 years apart
LEO BAECK College supporters enjoyed an exclusive online viewing of two very special Haggadahs which have found their way onto its shelves.
Senior librarian Cassy Sachar and Dr Jeremy Schonfield, professor of liturgy at the college, led the “tour” of the Herlingen Haggadah from Pressburg (now Bratislava), dating back to the 1700s and the Afikoman Haggadah, produced for the Israeli government more than twoand-a-half centuries later.
Ms Sachar said the Herlingen was a handwritten manuscript copied and illustrated by Aaron Wolf Herlingen in 1730, a commission which might have equated to six months’ salary. It includes more than 40 half-page and miniature illustrations, many vibrantly coloured — plus the smudges and wine stains reflecting almost 300 years of use.
“In contrast, the Afikoman Haggadah was published for the Israeli government in the mid-1990s as a gift edition. It is a flimsy, modern print production which has a real piece of matzah, the Afikoman of its title, sealed in the centre of the book and visible on every page.
“This literal interpretation, both high art and high kitsch, is designed to be used and discarded.”
Taking patrons through the books’ journeys into Leo Baeck’s possession, Ms Sachar explained that in 1889, the Herlingen made it into library of the Hochschule Rabbinical Seminary in
VBerlin, where Leo Baeck had studied and later taught.
“After the Second World War began, one of the teachers at the Hochschule managed to obtain sponsorship by the Hebrew Union College to escape Nazi Germany to go to America. He later reported the story of how he tricked the Nazi officials supervising the packing of his library. After they had checked and sealed the contents of his crates, he came down in the night to open the crates and slip in some of the treasures from the Hochschule.”
In the early 1980s, the Haggadah was one of several treasures rescued from a private sale by Sotheby’s New York.
Ms Sachar added that when the Judaica Conservancy was established to find suitable homes for such books, the college was able to acquire some of them, “including this one, for our students and the new generation of European rabbis being trained at LBC”.
As for the Afikoman Haggadah, Professor Schonfield explained that he had been given a copy one Pesach by his father-in-law, who received it from the Department of Antiquities of Israel, where he had worked as a senior archaeologist.
“There is hole cut to look through rather like a children’s book. You are meant to be looking at the matzah in a plastic box and are presumably supposed to open the box and use it.”
He added: “This Haggadah happens to be almost as rare as the unique Herlingen; a search of the libraries of the world shows there is actually only one other known copy.”
Ms Sachar reflected that both volumes were a sign of their times and places. “I love the juxtaposition of the two and I don’t think you would get that anywhere in the world but the Leo Baeck College library.”
The event was the first in the college’s Jewish Literature Re-imagined series which will see the library opening its virtual doors to share insights into its treasures.