Reshaping American Judaism

Reshaping American Judaism

Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections

2015

Moshe Kornfield, Scott Meyer, Elias Sacks, Stephanie Yuhas, Andrew Violet, Jane Thaler

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English

Reshaping American Judaism Recited during the seder, the Haggadah is a text that recounts the Exodus narrative amid a collection of songs, prayers, and stories. Each year, Jewish groups devoted to social activism create numerous liberation-themed versions of the Haggadah. Arthur Waskow’s Freedom Seder played an important role in defining this uniquely American approach to the Passover holiday. At the time, Waskow’s explicitly political take on the Passover text was viewed as both innovative and controversial; today, many American Jews understand Passover’s political and progressive messages to be core lessons of the holiday. These reinterpretations have changed the very meaning of the Passover holiday for many American Jews. In what follows, we highlight some of these reinterpretations in order to illustrate how religion and politics influence one another.