‘Szyk Haggadah’ Goes High-Tech

This illustration, “Moses Striking the Egyptian, Lodz, 1936,” is from the new Szyk Haggadah.

This illustration, “Moses Striking the Egyptian, Lodz, 1936,” is from the new Szyk Haggadah.

by Sandee Brawarsky
Jewish Week Book Critic

When Arthur Szyk’s Haggadah was first published in London in 1940, the full-color illustrated volume was not only the most expensive Haggadah ever printed, it was one of the most expensive books in the world, selling for $500. Since then, many editions were reprinted in Israel, for popular use, at moderate prices.
Now, Historicana is publishing a new limited edition, “The Szyk Haggadah,” the first to be printed in the United States, and the first digitally produced volume, with colors as vibrant as the original edition. In addition, the new volume is the first to have access to the original art, since the 1940 edition.
As publisher Irvin Ungar explains, “Our edition takes advantage of every recent advance in photography, color reproduction, and papermaking technology.”

He added, “I had to wait for technology to catch up with my dream.”
Szyk’s artistic style recalls medieval manuscript illumination, with decorative calligraphy.
Trained in Paris, Szyk created the Haggadah in his native Poland from 1934 to 1936, drawing parallels between the Passover narrative of Egyptian oppression and the threat of Nazism. He had to remove the explicit imagery before publication. The original edition included a translation by British historian Cecil Roth. Szyk moved to New York in 1940, some months after publication, and continued to work as an illustrator and cartoonist, known for his political art. He died in 1951, soon after being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
“Art is not my aim, but my means,” Szyk would say. He created art to promote tolerance, freedom and human dignity.
Ungar, a rare-book dealer and rabbi, had the opportunity to see the original edition some years ago, and was awestruck by the brilliant colors, as well as by the artist’s message of social justice. In an interview, he said that he had wanted to undertake this project for more than a decade, and finally found the technology and materials to do so. He has imported Nigerian goatskin, hand-made Japanese cloth and custom-profiled German paper, and worked with American craftspeople in printing and assembling the books. He commissioned a new translation and commentary, by Byron Sherwin, along with an accompanying 248-page volume of essays about the work, “Freedom Illuminated: Understanding the Szyk Haggadah.”
Historicana is publishing a total of 300 sets, the Deluxe edition at $8,500 and the Premier Edition, with special full-leather binding and a portfolio of 12 Szyk prints, at $15,000. For further information, www.szykhaggadah.com.

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