Webinar: Hollis Landauer on American Denominational and Cause Haggadot

The 20th century saw the breakdown of the hegemony of Orthodox Judaism and the rise of more liberal denominations and liturgies, many of which reflected changes in the broader culture. This lecture will deal with both American denominational Haggadot, which include those produced by the three major movements—Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox—and English-language, cause-inspired Haggadot produced by liberal Jews. Since Passover is the Festival of Freedom, the Haggadah has been often used as a vehicle for responses to historical events and connections with special causes related to social justice or specifically with Jewish issues.

The talk will explore cause Haggadot that connect with civil rights, labor, hunger, refugees, and climate change, and Jewish causes that revolve around Jewish liberation, women and LGBTQ issues, the Holocaust, Soviet Jewry, Israel-Palestine, and leftist secularism.

About the Speaker
Hollis Granoff Landauer is a collector of nontraditional Haggadot. She holds a B.A. from Mt. Holyoke, an M.A. in Near Eastern languages and literatures from UCLA, and a library degree from Simmons College. After working in libraries for a number of years, Granoff Landauer opened a design bookstore, Another Man’s Poison, in Toronto, focusing on books on design, graphics, and architecture. She has presented about pre-state kibbutz Haggadot and Holocaust-era Haggadot at Fordham in the past.