Make Passover 2014 Fun

I was inspired by a workshop I attended last Shabbat by the very talented Jewish educator Noam Zion. For well over a decade, I've been using his haggadah ("A Different Night") and his son Mishael Zion's haggadah ("A Night to Remember") to inspire my students to think about the Four Children in new and different ways through art.

Noam Zion, who teaches at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, is an advocate for making the Passover Seder more fun. I couldn't agree more. If we seder leaders make the experience more enjoyable and fun for the seder participants, they will get more out of it and look forward to the holiday more in the years to come. Some of the tried and true seder activities like "The Plagues Bag" will continue to work well for younger children, but after a few years of showing the little toys that represent each of the plagues, it will likely be time to try some new tricks. In that vein, I've put together a list of ways to make not just the seder, but the entire Passover holiday more fun.

PASSOVER SEDER STEPS FOLLOW-ALONG

Passover Seder Steps game from Holidays in a Box

Ellen Zimmerman of "Jewish Holidays in a Box" has come out with a new children's game for the seder called Passover Seder Steps Follow-Along. The new activity is designed to help families have more fun and keep everyone more engaged from beginning to end of the Passover Seder. The game comes with 5 gloss-coated boards, 5 game pawns and instructions for use. It's available from Amazon.com for $12.97 and can also be downloaded as a mobile app (the digital version is under $6). Inspired by her daughter's creation when she was 8-years-old, Zimmerman redesigned it to show the progression from step to step (using stone imagery) of the seder. The game is a great teaching tool and will help keep everyone at the table engaged.

POP HAGGADAH

Artist Melissa Berg's Pop Haggadah for Passover

Each year I acquire a new Passover haggadah to add to my ever growing collection. This year's favorite is the Pop Haggadah by Melissa Berg. This bright and colorful haggadah is one of the best I've seen in years. The different fonts and artwork on every page make it an exciting haggadah to thumb through or use at the seder. It's honestly perfect for both of children and adults, which is odd when it comes to haggadot. Melissa Berg, who is an artist and has worked in the marketing and filmmaking industries, really hit a homerun with this haggadah. Each section of Berg's haggadah has the traditional Hebrew with English translations, but even these texts are considered artwork. Each vibrant page is a surprise with completely different colors and designs. To borrow a term from the graphic design world: The Pop Haggadah really pops! As a bonus, Berg has included many "extras" on the Pop Haggadah website that can be used for seder activities.

BRONFMAN HAGGADAH APP

Bronfman Haggadah App from the late Edgar Bronfman and his wife Jan Aronson

Haggadah Feeling - Some Fresh Haggadot for Passover

I began collecting different versions of the haggadah, the Passover seder’s playbook-script-manual, when I was in college. It all started by ordering a new one each year in anticipation of the holiday and somehow my collection now exceeds 100 and has demanded its own bookcase. This pales in comparison with the vast haggadah collection of Irwin Alterman of blessed memory, a brilliant community leader in Detroit who passed away earlier this month and had an exquisite library of some 1,500 haggadahs. His son, a childhood friend, tells me that plans are underway to allow the public to admire his collection soon.

For many Jewish families the version of the haggadah is as much a family tradition as the food served during the seder meal. Just ask many Jewish Americans and they’ll tell you about their deep connection to the Maxwell House Haggadah from childhood seders.

The 21st century, however, has seen a seismic shift from the rather bland (and free) Maxwell House Haggadah to more creative versions. And that transition has also afforded many Jewish families some poetic liberties with the seder script. The more traditional families have always tended toward the keva (Hebrew for rote or routine), while more progressive families allowed for more kavvanah (that unscripted spontaneity)  while telling the Passover story. Truthfully, the seder was always intended to be a symposium or talk-feast with an ample mix of both keva and kavvanah. A famous rabbi quoted in the haggadah believes one must only mention the paschal lamb, matzah and bitter herb to fulfill the obligation of the seder. The rest as they say is commentary.