Our Haggadah

The Dry Bones Passover Haggadah
By Yaakov Kirschen
Menorah Books, 2018

Reviewed by Rabbi Jack Abramowitz

Some people accumulate haggadot the way that others accumulate social media “likes.” Every year brings a new stack of haggadot, replete with profound new insights to recite at the Seder. This is not one of those haggadot. The Dry Bones Passover Haggadah has nary a footnote or commentary to be found. At least not in the traditional sense.

Yaakov Kirschen may not be a household name but I’d bet that virtually every reader of Jewish Action is familiar with his comic strip, Dry Bones. Through his strip, named for the valley of dry bones that were subsequently revived in Ezekiel chapter 37, Kirschen has been offering chuckle-inducing commentary on Israeli politics for four and a half decades. Here, he brings his trademark wit and insight to the Passover haggadah. Instead of commentary from a new crop of Torah scholars, The Dry Bones Passover Haggadah features colorful and engaging cartoon illustrations and a variety of haggadah-themed comic strips.

The layout of the text is free-flowing and easy on the eyes, with matching Hebrew and English phrases juxtaposed for easy cross-reference. The English translation is engaging and reader-friendly; it also reflects modern sensibilities. For example, the “four sons” are “four children” – an increasingly-popular translation that is equally supported by the original Hebrew text. The “rasha” (“evil” child), however, is rendered as “contrary,” a translation that is, shall we say, generous to rasha’im. This generosity is not glossed over; the change in sensibilities is acknowledged by an accompanying comic strip. A little boy tells a little girl that “Grandpa says that back in ‘his day’ it wasn’t the four ‘children,’ it was the four ‘sons’…and the second one was ‘wicked’….” (We won’t give away the punchline here!)

There are bound to be any number of people around the Seder table for whom The Dry Bones Passover Haggadah would be perfect – including, but not limited to, children, people not thoroughly proficient in Hebrew, and family members who may have shorter attention spans. But these aren’t the only ones likely to enjoy it. Even those who thrive on annual stacks of profound new haggadot will enjoy Kirschen’s humorous observations and asides. As with his newspaper feature, these comic strips may tease the Jewish people for our foibles but they are always loving and respectful of Jewish tradition. As far as haggadot go, this one has all the fundamentals. It may not have as much profundity as some others but it definitely has much more fun .* * *
Dry Bones books (including our Haggadah): http://store.drybones.com
Or, if you are in Israel buy the Haggadah directly from publisher at: https://www.korenpub.com/koren_en_ils/koren/holidays/pesah/the-dry-bones-passover-haggadah.html
For info on how to make a donation to Dry Bones click on drybonesproject.com/365

Israel Diaries Review

Sheri Oz just published a review of the Dry Bones Passover Haggadah at her popular Israel Diaries site. Here it is:
I’m Reading From THIS Passover Haggadah This Year

BY SHERI OZ · APRIL 2, 2016

There’s still time to order your Haggadah for the Seder this year. The Dry Bones Passover Haggadah is a special treat. You get to spend the time with Dry Bones and that is always fun.
I can imagine my granddaughter sitting on my lap looking at the comics while I follow along the text of the Seder. That is, if other kids don’t grab Haggadah and pass it around the table. Might be a good idea to order a few extra copies just in case.

One thing I particularly liked about this volume — and I don’t know if Yaakov Kirschen thought about it like this – is how the preface is so personal. Makes me almost feel like he is talking to me, letting me know something about the man behind the famous comics. The fact that he lives just down the road (a long road, I admit, the coastal road to be exact – he’s in Tel Aviv and I’m in Haifa) feels that much more personal to me.

Kirschen tells us how he came to put this book together and what he hopes we will get from using it at our own Seders. He also shares his decision making regarding various aspects of his Haggadah. Here is an example

Telling us that his decisions were based upon how things felt to him made me smile because it is something I can relate to in my own life.

I thought you might like to see what some of the pages look like so I copied two pages with different design elements:

While Supplies Last!

Get YOUR Dry Bones Passover Haggadah

store.drybones.com

Times of Israel

Just In, Times of Israel article about my crowdfunding campaign at indiegogo (http://igg.me/at/drybones)

Dry Bones league vs. the anti-Semites
Yaakov Kirschen wants to share his wealth of experience in ‘cartooning activism’
by Jessica Steinberg
Cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen is at it again. The Dry Bones cartoonist recently launched a new crowdsourcing campaign to raise money to fight anti-Semitism.
“I want to pass on to the next generation of cartoon activists my principles of cartooning activism,” said Kirschen, who is 76.
It isn’t the veteran cartoonist’s first crowdsourcing campaign. His first was in 2012, when he raised $5,000 in two days for a Passover Haggadah project on Kickstarter.
This time, it’s a more political product. But he’s already raised more than $15,000 of his $20,000 goal.
“We are now facing a massive wave of anti-Semitism that is beyond anti-Semitism, it’s against our civilization,” said Kirschen. “So it’s just as much anti-Christianity and it calls for a new kind of organization.” Recalling the past waves of anti-Semitism that brought about the creation of the World Zionist Organization and then the Anti-Defamation League, Kirschen said he wants to “convert Dry Bones fans” into members of his new organization.
He’s worried about the recent rise in anti-Semitism, and the number of Christians being “slaughtered” in Syria.
“It’s the Judeo-Christian civilizations that are under threat,” said the political cartoonist.The Dry Bones project would include scholarships to the virtual academy to bring political cartoonists to Israel, teach how viral anti-Semitism is communicated through images in cartoons, and create a website, among other activities. “It’s a humongous vision,” said Kirschen. “It’s been sort of forming in my mind ever since I received the Bonei Zion award,” given by aliyah organization Nefesh b’Nefesh in 2014. “It was a ‘now relax and go fishing award,’ but I felt something has to be done,” he said. “I have more than 7,000 cartoons in an archive and I’ve got all this knowledge. It’s time to pass this all on.”

Kirschen, who was born in Brooklyn and immigrated to Israel in 1971, started his comic strip in 1973. It ran in The Jerusalem Post for four decades.

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Click to check out our indiegogo campaign http://igg.me/at/drybones