Haggadah for Pesach
Object numberM2010/019
TitleHaggadah for Pesach
DescriptionHebrew/Afrikaans Haggadah or Paasfeesverhaal (Passover prayer book) printed in 1968 in the Hebrew year 5728, South Africa. Forward by Chief Rabbi Israel Abrahams and introduction by Dr H Abt. Translated by Roman Egert.
When Roman Egert arrived in Cape Town from Poland as a young boy in 1931, he went to school without knowing a word of English or Afrikaans. Yet he is responsible for having been the first to translate the Haggadah into Afrikaans. “With what I have done here, I hope to bring this little book to the public eye. I see this as an experiment, and as the beginning of far more translations of the Jewish Religious literature”.
Summary of the forward by Rabbi Israel Abrahams (translated):
“This first translation of the Haggadah into Afrikaans will serve, without exaggeration as a milestone in the relevant literate and historical arena…the act of translation acknowledges the value of Afrikaans as an important language, an ancient work in a novel language, whereby the old interfaces with the new…also, the translation serves the needs of so many Jews who have adopted Afrikaans as their Mother tongue, especially the Plattelanders, something that is not only appropriate, but necessary, indicating more than any statistic to what extent the Jewish People have assimilated into the community in South Africa, but also how deeply they have planted their roots in this land…That the Haggadah was chosen out of all the Jewish liturgy is perhaps just accidental, but it is also a symbol of a land such as South Africa, as well as a people like the Afrikaners who are so swayed by the ideals of freedom…showing that the soul of man is given by God with inborn freedom, and the Seder Service declares on the basis of the Israelites deepest experience in the service of God that the lot of all tyrants is sealed in advance, and that for those who suffer oppression, God will release them from their bondage one day…”
When Roman Egert arrived in Cape Town from Poland as a young boy in 1931, he went to school without knowing a word of English or Afrikaans. Yet he is responsible for having been the first to translate the Haggadah into Afrikaans. “With what I have done here, I hope to bring this little book to the public eye. I see this as an experiment, and as the beginning of far more translations of the Jewish Religious literature”.
Summary of the forward by Rabbi Israel Abrahams (translated):
“This first translation of the Haggadah into Afrikaans will serve, without exaggeration as a milestone in the relevant literate and historical arena…the act of translation acknowledges the value of Afrikaans as an important language, an ancient work in a novel language, whereby the old interfaces with the new…also, the translation serves the needs of so many Jews who have adopted Afrikaans as their Mother tongue, especially the Plattelanders, something that is not only appropriate, but necessary, indicating more than any statistic to what extent the Jewish People have assimilated into the community in South Africa, but also how deeply they have planted their roots in this land…That the Haggadah was chosen out of all the Jewish liturgy is perhaps just accidental, but it is also a symbol of a land such as South Africa, as well as a people like the Afrikaners who are so swayed by the ideals of freedom…showing that the soul of man is given by God with inborn freedom, and the Seder Service declares on the basis of the Israelites deepest experience in the service of God that the lot of all tyrants is sealed in advance, and that for those who suffer oppression, God will release them from their bondage one day…”
SubjectPassover, Pesach, ritual prayer, Haggadah
Object nameHaggadah
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- height: 223.00 mm
width: 150.00 mm
Language
- Hebrew
Afrikaans
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs Shani Diamond