The New World Haggadah

The purpose of The New World Haggadah is to make Moses emblematic of today’s complex world. The book is designed around the exquisite work of artist and university professor, Gloria Abella Ballen. These bold and richly saturated color images ground the text in an art book design that will enhance your Seder dinners for years to come.

What makes this a new Haggadah is also its multicultural—and multilingual—qualities. We have reconfigured the liturgy to be more embracing, inserting voices from various lands, all seeking freedom through renewal.

Like Moses, each of us is a symbol because others see themselves reflected in us. Others live their lives through ours. Passover is about realizing that we are at once imprisoned in our moment in time and space and simultaneously free to wander to other times and places through the power of our imagination. This Passover story transports us to a time long ago when great men and women and great events led a people to freedom.

The story of Exodus is a human story. It is universal. The dream is that the diversity in this narrative will make all of us feel that it is ours. The act of repeating the Exodus story is liberating and gaining freedom is a continuous process. We might not be fully free, but each of us is in the process of breaking from our slavery, our "Egypt".

Written by Ilan Stavans,  Illustrated by Glora Abella Ballen

Paperback, 150 Pages, Published 2016