A radicalized version of the traditional Passover Haggadah that draws parallels between the Biblical liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery and the present day struggle for peace, freedom and civil rights, will be published March 23 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, it was announced today. The volume, titled “The Freedom Seder: A New Haggadah for Passover,” was written by Arthur I. Waskow. a member of the board of the National Jewish Organizing Project and a member of Jews for Urban Justice, a Washington-based group committed to ending racism.
In addition to telling the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt, the new Haggadah contains excerpts from the writings and speeches of Eldridge Cleaver, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, A.J. Muste, Ghandi, Hannah Arendt, Henry David Thoreau, Martin Buber and Thomas Jefferson. According to Mr. Waskow, his Haggadah is “unusual for a radical book in that it stands within the religious tradition, praises God, and works through ritual and ceremony. On the other hand, it is unusual for a religious book in that it is openly and joyfully radical.”
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