We’ve written and designed our own Passover Haggadah for the last 11 years, with themes of learning, life and love for our 3 granddaughters & friends This year the choice was clear.
For the past 11 years, our family has celebrated Passover with our own homegrown, family-designed and written Haggadah, the story of the special holiday, read at each night’s Seder.
It came about because I was frustrated and disappointed by the traditional Haggadah’s available. We used the free kind (offered by Chock-Full-of-Nuts) and the elaborate ones which cost $19.95 per book. None of them satisfied me.
I scoured book stores, Jewish Museums and temples for kid-friendly versions, which were not condescending, impenetrable, sexist and insulting to the intelligence of our three super smart granddaughters.
Finally, in desperation, I decided to write my own Haggadah, and, each year, build it around a theme that would captivate our girls attention. Fresh in my mind was a schtick Jon Stewart did on his Daily Show, about how we Jews were not very good marketers of our faith and our holidays, in comparison to Christians. Stewart compared our constant battles, and beatings and boils and mean tyrants to the Christian use of an Easter Bunny to soften the nailing to a crucifix of a socialist preacher, or the endless parade of gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ, an illegal immigrant, and illegitimate child.
So, I took Jon Stewart’s advice and decided to pin Passover to the latest passion of our granddaughters, and not only write it into a “book,” but acting it out in what our youngest called “The Passover Puppet Show.” It made them look forward to and plan for Passover each Spring. One year we celebrated a “Shopkin Passover,” with tiny toy Shopkins being led to the Promised Land by Moses; another, it was the “Sheroes” of TV fame who defeated the evil Pharoah; still another time, our stars of the show were “Axlotyls” those amazing, regenerative creatures who could never be defeated, because they give themselves rebirth, whenever they are attacked or harmed. A perfect metaphor for Jewish resilience, I thought.
This year in the face of ferocious political attacks on everyone who was “different” in some way, “Diversity” was our favored theme, hands down, especially since our family is rich with Neurodiversity, ethnic diversity, and sexual diversity. The girls “Grammy” led the way by carefully building the Lego “Rainbow People”, which served as the centerpiece of our “Rainbow Passover” Seder Table.
Everything else flowed from there, especially when our youngest granddaughter, G, Age 9, was told what the theme would be for this Passover. She handcrafted beautiful, intricately designed table place cards, with tiny creatures (frog, dogs, cats) peaking over each letter of her grandmother’s name. She drew, freehand, a delicious-looking piece of cake, which would have made the artist Wayne Thiebaud quite proud, and she dedicated it as a place card for her oldest sister, who was away at school and unable to join us this year.
I devoted four hours of Passover morning rewriting our Haggadah, around the theme of our “Rainbow Passover.” Events of the first 90 days of the terrible Trump Two Administration—with a wild-eyed war on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, attacking Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelou, Holocaust Survivors, the LGBTQ community, and ever single Black, Brown or Indigenous legend of history—made writing this year’s Diversity Haggadah, the easiest writing assignment of all.
The words and images poured out of me:
“Once upon a time, in a not too distant land, lived a mad, mad king. The Mad King was very cruel. He called people names, made fun of them if they were disabled, or if their skin were a different color than his, or if they didn’t bow to his God, or if they loved someone he thought they should not, or ESPECIALLY if they were smart, talented, creative, independent Girls…
“Because he hated anything or anyone different, the Mad, evil King ordered that ALL the Rainbows in the sky be turned off—and that ALL of the Rainbow People be shipped off to a dangerous prison, in a dangerous place, like El Salvador…”
The girls, two 13 year-olds and a nine-year old, loved the reference to current events. Our Miriam, Moses sister who saved him as an infant, was a Rainbow bedecked Grover, called “Princess Loving Heart” who:
“Gently wrapped Moses’ little boat in her Rainbow Coat; she hugged the cozy boat (designed by our 9-year old granddaughter), surrounding it with Rainbow Roses. (Brought to the Seder by our friends who were attending their first Seder ever.)
“She loved and raised her Rainbow Sisters, whose colors grew bolder, and they became resisters; they resisted all cruelty, evil and hate, because—in their hearts—all humans and animals were great!”
Our Rainbow People, symbolic for the Jews fleeing the Mad Pharoah of Egypt, resisted their Mad King’s efforts to beat them down, brought down a storm of plagues upon the Mad King, using finger puppets portraying each plague, played to perfection by the every participant at our Passover table.
And, just like the Lego model proudly occupying the center of our Seder table, the Red Sea parted to let our Rainbow People go.
“The Rainbow People were free at last, their days as slaves, now long past; their differences, valued; their DIVERSITY, a blessing; each with a dignity that left no one guessing…
“They had made it to the Promised Land, with each giving the other a helping hand; “Hope, Everlasting,” each Rainbow said, as they all dreamed as big as the Rainbows over their Heads.”
It was simply the best Passover celebration we ever had.