The Haggadah, which is reproduced here, was printed in Warsaw by the “Stereotyp” printing press. The year of printing is not given. According to Abraham Yaari’s “Bibliography of the Passover Haggadah” (Jerusalem 1960. No. 2121) it was printed in 1929/ Isaac Yudlov in his “The Haggadah Thesaurus” (Jerusalem 1997, No. 2981) believes it was printed about the year 1925. He writes that according to a paper attached to the copy of this Haggadah, in the possession of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, the Haggadah was donated to the library by its publisher in 5687 (1926-1927).
The “Stereotyp” press published other editions of Haggadoth, including some with Yiddish and Polish translations. About the year 1935, this press published a second edition of the Haggadah before us and a few year later (1938?) a third edition. Warsaw Jewry at the time of the printing of this Haggadah, in the period between the two World Wars, was the largest Jewish community in Europe.
The Haggadah is illustrated. The illustrations include three large pictures, each of which fills an entire page (A Statue of Ramses II who lived at the time of Moses. Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s daughter finding Moses.)[1] Other illustrations are: A family at the Seder, the Seder of the Sages in Bnai Brak, and the Four Sons. Two series of ten small pictures, illustrate the ten plagues and the Chad Gadya song. The last illustration at the end of the plagues and the Chad Gadya song. The last illustration at the end of the Haggadah, shows an Egyptian horseman with his horse and Chariot. In the third edition there were some changes with regard to the illustrations. (See Yudov’s “The Haggadah Thesaurus” Nos. 3506 and 3645.)
The laws of searching for and removal of Chometz, those relating to Eruv Tavshilin, as well as the Seder instructions are given in Yiddish. Only the instructions with regard to Urchatz (the washing of the hands without blessing) and Karpas (the eating of a small piece of vegetable after dipping it into salt water or vinegar), which are incorporated in a drawing are given in Hebrew. It seems that this drawing was taken from another Haggadah, where all Seder instructions were in Hebrew.
This new edition of a rare and interesting Haggadah, is presented by the Diskin Orphan Home of Israel to its numerous friends as a token of appreciation for their continued support. We are all indebted to Rabbi Munish Weintraub, its director, who was instrumental in the preparation of this facsimile edition of the Haggadah.
[1] According to Yudlov, some of the pictures are by Gustave Dore, the French 19th century artist, whose illustrations of the Bible are very famous.