The Szyk Haggadah - 1967

The Szyk Haggadah is a Passover Haggadah that was illustrated by the Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk in Poland between 1934 and 1936. Szyk's visual commentary on the ancient story of Passover uses the vocabulary and format of an illuminated manuscript; each of his 48 full-page watercolor and gouache illuminations contains the traditional text of the Haggadah (in Hebrew calligraphy), which is clarified and interpreted by the images and symbols on the same page. Szyk first looked for a publisher for his Haggadah in mainland Europe in the mid 1930s but found that his contemporary telling of the Haggadah was met with skepticism. Publishers in Poland, for example, were reluctant to publicize a book that drew a direct parallel between the contemporary policies of Nazi Germany and the genocidal tactics of the pharaoh of the biblical Book of Exodus. Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) is considered by scholars to have been the greatest twentieth-century illuminator working in the style of the sixteenth-century miniaturist painters, and the leading political caricaturist in America during World War II. His Haggadah was described by the Times of London as "worthy to be placed among the most beautiful of books that the hand of man has produced." Arthur Szyk is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable and talented artists of modern times. ------- This copy of the Szyk Haggadah was published the year of 1967, Massada and Alumoth House Publishers, in Israel. The book is in mint condition and well kept in the original card slip-case .