Artwork:
Cleaning House of Chomez; Passover Preparations. Postcard. F 21162. [Digitized]
Making Matzah. Painting, 1927. 1995.236 [Digitized]
Market before Passover. Painting. 1991.242 [Digitized]
Ritual Objects:
Matzah container (matzah basket), 1920's. 1989.028 [Digitized]
Matzah cover, ca. 1900. 1994.451 [Digitized]
Matzah cover, 1920's. 2004.068 [Digitized]
Pesach Seder Table Runner, circa 1900. 2010.40 [Digitized]
Three-tiered Seder Plate, 1980s/1990. [Digitized]
A Survivors’ Haggadah
Blog Post by Lauren Gilbert, Director of Public Services
Out of the Box: 4 Unique Passover Objects
Bonni-Dara Michaels, the Collections Curator at the Yeshiva University Museum, shares a few of her favorite Passover items from the collections
Search the collections at the Center for Jewish History
Center for Jewish History: General Information
Lillian Goldman Reading Room
Ackman and Ziff Family Genealogy Institute
Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) is one of the three major pilgrimage festivals of ancient Israel. The holiday celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt. Its name comes from the miracle in which God “passed over” the houses of the Israelites during the tenth plague. Centered on the family or communal celebration of the seder (ritual meal), Passover is a beloved Jewish holidays. Work is prohibited during the first and last days of Passover.
Because the Israelites didn't have time allow their bread rise as they fled Egypt, Jewish law forbids eating or owning food that contains leavened grains. To prepare, Jews remove trace of leavened foods (chametz) from the home. This requires deep cleaning of the home and shopping for special kosher-for-Passover foods, such as matzah.
The central ritual the seder, a carefully choreographed meal that typically takes place in the home, though synagogues may offer community seders as well. A number of symbolic foods are laid out on the table, often on a seder plate. The seder follows a script laid out in the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Exodus and can also include songs and artwork. Haggadot come in many forms. They can be very traditional and liturgical, can be homemade and revised to fit personal theology, or they can be created for a specific group, such as children.
The Children's Passover Haggadah / Siegmund Forst; Ben-Ami Scharfstein; G. Ephros. Shilo Publishing House, 1945.
The Exodus Haggadah From Tyranny to Freedom A Celebration / Rabbi David A. Wortman; Dr. Mark Podwal; National Conference on Soviet Jewry; United Jewish Appeal. 1990.
Haggadah. Hebrew & Yiddish. Seder Hagadah shel Pesaḥ ʻim haʻataḳot ʻivri ṭaiṭsh ha-meduberet benenu : mishle ḥakhamim, zeyer sheyne sipurim un mesholim / New York: bi-defus ve-hotsaʻat ha.r. Leyb Flohr, 189-? or 191-?. [Digitized]
Hagadah shel Pesaḥ = הגדה של פסח / prepared by the packers of Maxwell House Coffee. General Foods Corp., 1934.
Hagadah shel Pesaḥ / perevelʺ po Russki i obʺi͡asnil Ben-Iosif / Odessa: Be-hotsaʼat "Ben-Yosef", 189-? or 190-?. [Digitized]
Midge's Haggadah Passover Seder Service = Hagadah shel Pesah / compliments of Maxwell House Coffee and the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. New York: Melcher Media, 2019.
The Sephardic Children's Hagadah shel Pesaḥ / edited by Rabbi Ellis J. Safdeye. Brooklyn: Rabbi Ellis J. Safdeye, 2014.
Service for the two first nights of the Passover: in Hebrew and English / According to the German & Spanish Jews. Translated into English by the late David Levi, of London. New York: S. H. Jackson, 1836 or 1837.
The Jewish Holidays and Their Favorite Foods with Easy Recipes for Mother and Daughter / Fanny Engle and Dorothy M. Weiss. 1958.
Passover by Design: Picture-Perfect Kosher by Design Recipes for the Holiday / by Susie Fishbein; photography by John Uher. Brooklyn, NY: Artscroll/Shaar Press: Distributed by Mesorah Publications, 2008.
Planters Passover Recipe Book [פלענטערס היי העט פינאט אויל] / Suffolk, VA; Wilkes-Barre, PA: Planters Edible Oil Company, 1920-1980.
The Manischewitz Passover Cookbook / by Deborah Ross; illustrated by Gene Szafran. New York: Walker and Company, 1969.
The New York Times Passover Cookbook: More than 200 Holiday Recipes from Top Chefs and Writers / edited by Linda Amster. New York: Morrow, c1999.
The When You Live in Hawaii, You Get Very Creative During Passover Cookbook: An Incredible Collection of Passover Recipes Gathered By the Members, Families, and Friends of Congregation Sof Ma'arav, Honolulu, Hawaii / edited by Judy Goldman and Davida Skigen; illustrated by Wren. Honolulu, Hawaii : Congregation Sof Ma'arav, 1989.
Creating Lively Passover Seders: a sourcebook of engaging tales, texts & activities / David Arnow. Woodstock, VT.: Jewish Lights Publishing, c2004.
The Emergence of the Spanish Illuminated Haggadah Manuscript / Michael Andrew Batterman. Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2000.
Jewish Reform Movement in the U.S.: The Evolution of the Non-Liturgical Parts of the Central Conference of American Rabbis Haggadah / Mara W. Cohen Ioannides. Berlin; Boston: Walter de-Gruyter, 2018.
Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition / Rebecca Alpert. New York: Columbia University Press, c1997.
The Women's Passover Companion: Women's Reflections on the Festival of Freedom / edited by Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Tara Mohr & Catherine Spector; foreword by Paula E. Hyman. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, c2003.
The Women's Seder Sourcebook: Rituals & Readings for Use at the Passover Seder / edited by Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Tara Mohr & Catherine Spector. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., ©2003.
Records of the Association for Free Distribution of Matsot to the Poor (New York, N.Y.), I-106 [Digitized and available online]
This collection contains accounts, lists, receipts, and reports of the committees appointed by the Jewish Community of New York for the years 1855 and 1858, to provide matzoth for Passover to the needy Jewish families of the city.
Seder Ritual Committee Records, I-50
The collection documents the activities of the Committee: correspondence, publicity, orders, copies of the Seder Ritual of Remembrance.
Displaced Persons Camps and Centers Photograph Collection [Items digitized and available online]
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) collection, I-363
National Jewish Welfare Board Records [Items digitized and available online]
Arthur Waskow papers, 1948-2009, P-152
The collection documents the professional activities and personal life of Waskow, a Jewish Renewal rabbi and political activist. Series VI contains several drafts of the Haggadah text, materials relating to the Freedom Seders of 1969 and 1970, correspondence regarding the work, book reviews, news clippings, correspondence regarding promotion of the published Haggadah, and orders for the Haggadah. There are also materials dealing with the 40th Anniversary of the Freedom Seder.