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Passover 2012

On the Feast of Unleavened Bread, here’s all of Tablet Magazine’s Passover coverage and commentary, covering everything from quinoa to Qaddafi to Seder-plate cocktails

by
The Editors
March 23, 2012
(Abigail Miller/Tablet Magazine)
(Abigail Miller/Tablet Magazine)

Passover FAQ: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Feast of Unleavened Bread

Haggadah:

On the Bookshelf: From the classic to the newfangled: haggadahs for Seders of every shape, size, and stripe, by Josh Lambert

National Treasure: A critical edition of The Washington Haggadah, a 1478 manuscript housed at the Library of Congress, shows how much—and how little—Passover has changed since the 15th century, by Adam Kirsch

To the Last Detail: More than 50 million copies of the Maxwell House Haggadah have been distributed since 1932, but a different, lower-profile version of the Passover prayerbook is the quintessential Jewish-American text, by Allison Hoffman

Paschal Lampoon: Forget Purim. Passover has a rich comedic tradition all its own, with parodies of the haggadah mocking everything from rabbis and the rich to Mussolini and Hitler, by Eddy Portnoy

Crossing Over: Journalists Steve and Cokie Roberts, a non-observing Jew and a Catholic, have hosted Passover Seders together for four decades. They share the rituals from their interfaith observance in a new haggadah. By Vox Tablet

On the Bookshelf: Beyond Maxwell House: A haggadah roundup, by Josh Lambert

The Tablet Haggadah: Writers, artists, and a boxer meditate on the meaning of Passover, by Tablet Magazine

Piece Meal: The first Passover celebrations included neither haggadah nor Seder. With the passage of millennia, the two have become central elements. Herewith an interactive guide to the collage of texts that constitutes the holiday’s guidebook, by Joshua J. Friedman

Food:

Trans Siberian: Family recipes traveled from the remote Russian region to Japan, California, and finally Providence, R.I., carrying delicious tastes of the Old Country, including an unusual Passover treat, by Joan Nathan

Against the Grain: In Israel, milk and eggs are kosher for Passover only when produced by livestock that is chametz-free. A dairy farmer explains how the holiday alters his routine. By Vox Tablet

Off the Table: After a kosher-certifying agency deemed quinoa, the South American grain-like seed, Passover-compliant, it’s become a darling of the Passover table. But now rabbis are having doubts. By Leah Koenig

Refill: Specialty cocktails inspired by the Seder plate offer the flavors of Passover with a twist, by Marjorie Ingall

Push-Pull: I became a Jew at the age of 39, and I love my new faith. But learning to embrace Jewish food—especially at Passover—was another story. By Siân Gibby

Paste Test: Comparing charosets—the date, nut, and wine concoction that sweetens the seder, by Joan Nathan

It Is Risen: At the end of Passover festival known as Mimouna, Moroccan Jews return to yeasty treats in grand style, by Lara Rabinovitch

Before the Exodus: A tour of Streit’s matzo factory, while it’s still in the neighborhood, by Sean Cole

Crash Course: Invited to a seder, a non-Jew quickly learns everything he can about making a kosher-for-Passover recipe, by Patrick Huguenin

Off the Menu: Why did my grandmother keep meticulous records of her Passover meals, but kept her maiden name a secret? By Jennifer Weisberg

Going Nuts: Passover is about freedom, so let’s not encourage our kids to be slaves to their allergies, by Marjorie Ingall

Purple Haze: Taking a plunge into kosher wines, by Sara Ivry

Passover Pancake: This Passover, Daniel Boulud is borrowing a food staple from a different holiday, by Liel Leibovitz

Unkosher Cooking: New York chef Joseph Dobias is best known for the ‘Conflicted Jew,’ by Molly Young

It Oughta Be Kosher! This Passover, help yourself to some cookie dough, by Marc Tracy

Mmmm, Fruit Slices: An audio tour of a well-worn candy store on the Lower East Side, by Blake Eskin

Ritual:

Funniest Nights: From setting crumbs on fire to the awkwardness of eating a matzoh-and-salami sandwich, an illustrator recounts her family’s weird and wonderful Passover traditions, by Vanessa Davis

iPassover: Holiday smartphone apps offer everything from a simulated candle for ferreting out hametz to a Ten Plagues noisemaker that you never knew you needed, by Joshua J. Friedman

Plagued: For an unrepentant news junkie, the Seder plate’s symbolism can turn topical, transforming the usual boiled eggs and parsley into delicacies like Qaddafi charoset and bitter Boehner herb. By Steve Brodner

Platonic Form: What makes the Seder night different? Its Greek roots. By Judith Shulevitz

‘I Lift My Lamp’: Including Emma Lazarus in the Passover Seder reminds Jews to keep marching toward justice, by Esther Schor

Repeat Performances: What Jewish rituals and Judaism share with Civil War reenactment and Southern culture, by Dara Horn

A Different Night: A Washington journalist discusses some of the Christian Seders he has thrown, by Allison Hoffman

Guess Who’s Coming to Seder: A Passover in Berlin stirs up questions of freedom and faith, by Jude Stewart

Next Year in Sulaymaniyah: Passover takes on new meaning for a reporter far from home, by Jessie Graham

A Seder in Sulaymaniyah: How the story of Passover resounds in northern Iraq, by Jessie Graham

‘Exodus’ Hits Twitter: #Letmypeoplego, by Marc Tracy

Dead Wrong: A haftorah of rigidity and ritual, by Liel Leibovoitz

Organizers and Agitators: A new documentary looks at the latest generation of Jewish radicals, by Jennifer Bleyer

Family:

Passover Perfect: More than any other Jewish holiday, Passover can turn mothers into obsessive control freaks. But if we’re to have a meaningful holiday, we have to resist the madness. By Marjorie Ingall

Substitutions: For a kid-friendly Passover, try rounding out the seder plate with some off-menu additions, by Marjorie Ingall

Ask, Don’t Tell: A father’s reflections on teaching his son the Four Questions, by Vox Tablet

Kids These Days: After a Seder circus, wondering if too much emphasis on children is ruining ritual, by Marjorie Ingall

Monkey Business: Just in time for Passover, an exhibition devoted to Curious George sheds light on the character’s genesis and his German-Jewish creators’ exodus, by Marjorie Ingall

Exodus: Forget cleaning for Passover and instead head to a luxury hotel for the holiday, by Jennifer Garfinkel

Five Kids: El Lissitzky’s revolutionary take on a medieval Passover song, and a contemporary illustrator has a fresh look at the Seder’s four sons, by Sara Ivry

Mothers’ Little Helpers: Guidebooks quell the anxieties of raising up a child, by Lynn Harris

A Gathering of Diasporas: An Israeli in New York contemplates her homeland, by Nelly Reifler

School Days: An eleven-year-old who’s finding her way, by Nelly Reifler

Art and Culture:

Free Verse: To celebrate the overlap of Passover and National Poetry Month, poets Andrea Cohen, Robert Pinsky, and Mark Levine offer some selections on the themes of liberation, ritual, journeying, and food, by Vox Tablet

Slaving Away: On Passover, we recall that Moses was a stranger in a strange land. An illustrated column imagines how the story might sound in a contemporary Israeli classroom. By Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka

Not Kidding: Painter Archie Rand’s 10-piece Had Gadya series—now on view in Philadelphia—underscores the darkness and complexity at the heart of the Seder’s final song, by David Kauffman

About Time: A vivid new scholarly book illuminates how the calendars of early modern Europe—playful, alive, and beautifully designed—reflected and transformed Jewish conceptions of time, by Anthony Grafton

Signs of Spring: In this week’s “Tell Me,” Tablet Magazine’s illustrated question-and-answer column, we revisit the Four Questions—and watch as New York wakes up from its wintery slumber. By Liana Finck

Cracked: In this week’s “Tell Me,” Tablet Magazine’s illustrated question-and-answer column, we interrogate what it means to ask questions—and ponder a fridge full of damaged eggs. By Liana Finck

Everything’s Coming Up Moses: Songs from Tablet Magazine’s ‘Gypsy’-inspired Passover musical, by Rachel Shukert

Jazzed Up: New albums find inspiration in the Passover haggadah, by Alexander Gelfand

Exodus ’56: A novel examines the parallel dislocations of Hungarian and Egyptian immigrants to Israel, by Adam Kirsch

The Torah in the Altarpiece: A new exhibition explores the overlapping worlds of Christian and Jewish art in medieval Spain, by Robin Cembalest

Let My People Grow: God & Co., Episode II, by God & Co.

From the editors of Tablet Magazine.