The Rose Haggadah

The Rose Haggadah is a unique artists’ book, the result of an innovative annual commission from the Rose family, presented to the Library’s Dorot Jewish Division by the Rose family in 2005. In three volumes, the Rose Haggadah brings together 50 years of Passover-themed artwork, ranging stylistically all the way from “New York social realist” Jack Levine to New York Review of Books caricaturist David Levine, via some of the most prominent American artists of the 20th century. Each year, at Passover, the Library shows an opening from one of the volumes, accompanied by a video presentation featuring a wide variety of images from all three volumes; meanwhile, work continues on volume four.

Image (above right): David Levine (1926–2009), after Michelangelo. Ben-Gurion as the new Moses, 1972. From the Rose haggadah: Rose Family seder book II (Seder of the family of Samuel B. and Belle B. Rose, 1971–89). NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division. Courtesy of the Estate of David Levine.