Shayna Kurland, 28, of the Bay View neighborhood, has been making her own Haggadot since she was an undergraduate political science major in Iowa.
If you were to make a personal Haggadah, your own guide for Passover, what would you put into it? Obviously, there are many traditionalists who would not alter established custom or ritual. But for others, Kurland’s story might get you thinking.
Kurland has made three Haggadot in all, each with a story behind it, culminating in a third Haggadah that reflects her progressive values.
First, Kurland made one as president of Hillel, as an undergraduate at Iowa State University in Aimes, Iowa. She was looking for a cheap option and created a Haggadah online for a 70-person college Seder.
The second Hagaddah
After graduation in 2009, she crafted her second edition online, too, as a new resident of Fargo, North Dakota. She had moved there to be an organizer for a clean energy campaign.
“I was having a Seder where there were a lot of non-Jewish people that were coming,” she said. “It wasn’t really an interfaith Seder but I wanted something that kind of explained things a little bit better so everyone there would feel comfortable.”
She was having about 15 people, including a Muslim and Christians.
“I did look around and it was hard to find something that wasn’t a children’s Hagaddah and was still simple and easy to understand,” she said. “I wanted something that had transliteration.”
Kurland went back to the Internet and created her second Haggadah, choosing to include elements that were explanatory and related strongly to the meaning behind Passover.
The third Hagaddah
Kurland’s third Haggaddah is the one she’s used for the last three years. She wanted to create something “progressive,” something that would make “people reflect on how our world is currently.”
Much of the third Haggaddah is traditional, but it’s laced with Kurland’s progressive views. Here’s some of what’s said as the middle matzo is raised:
“This is the bread of affliction. Let everyone who is hungry come and eat. But when saying that traditional line — let all who are hungry come and eat — we must also recognize the stark contrast between the generosity of the Jewish people expressed in this invitation, and the actual reality in which we live. In the past year the U.S. Congress has passed tax legislation that would return hundreds of billions of dollars to the well-to-do, and yet our country has no money to deal with the needs of the poor, the homeless, and the hungry.”
The above text is taken from tikkun.org – much of the Haggadah is clipped together bits from the Internet.
The Haggadah touches on present day slavery, human trafficking and LGBT rights. It has an orange placed on the Seder plate, a symbol sometimes used among progressive Jews to send the message that people who feel marginalized are welcome.
The Haggadah doesn’t assume God is male. It includes both matriarchs and patriarchs and Kurland said she was careful to have matriarchs as prominent as patriarchs, “and also Miriam’s cup in addition to Elijah’s.”
The whole Hagaddah reflects her interest in social justice, progressive values and feminism.
“Those are the same things that I try to live my life by,” she said, noting her Haggadah helps produce interesting conversations with people from all walks of life that she invites into her home for Passover.
Kurland made all three of her Haggadot with the appropriately named haggadot.com. Editorial director Tamar Fox of Philadelphia said the site allows users to create custom Haggadot and select whether theirs is public or private.
“Most people are creating a Haggadah for their family Seder,” she said. “They’re just kind of using our site to bring it all together.”
The site offers swaths of content, serving as puzzle pieces that can be dropped into one’s own Haggadah. Haggadot.com has about 37,000 users and they estimate that they have reached approximately 500,000 people at Seders worldwide, Fox said. Users have created more than 28,000 Haggadot.
Some, like Kurland, use the site to create social justice Haggadot. In recent years, “black lives matter” content has become popular. Fox notes that it wouldn’t be easy to find a traditionally published Haggadah that talks about “black lives matter.”
Funding for the site comes from grants and fundraising, she said. It’s a labor of love, not big profits.
Fox, who is originally from Chicago, said she started hosting Seders for the first time when she got involved with haggadot.com three years ago.
“We have really beautiful artwork on the site,” she said. “I love the site.”
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