On Sunday March 31, the Jewish Center held a book launch for The Promise of Liberty, a newly released Haggadah by Straus Center Deputy Director Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern and Jacob Kupietzky. The event featured Adam Kirsch, Wall Street Journal features editor, in conversation with Dr. Halpern. They were introduced by the Jewish Center’s Rabbi Dr. Yosie Levine, who reflected on the publication of the Haggadah in light of the ongoing conflict in Israel. “Israeli and American citizens are held hostage in Gaza,” he reminded the attendees, “and the theme of redemption seems particularly poignant at this moment.” 

In his opening remarks, Jacob Kupietzky expressed gratitude to Rabbi Levine for his support in bringing the Haggadah to fruition, and noted the challenge of ensuring that the Passover Seder continues to resonate with his children's modern-day sensibilities. He underscored the responsibility of Jewish parents to transmit the Pesach story from one generation to the next.

Dr. Halpern and Mr. Kirsch’s conversation followed, and they delved into the enduring relevance of biblical narratives, particularly the Exodus story, in shaping American identity. Mr. Kirsch highlighted the profound influence of the Exodus narrative on the vision of America's founding fathers and subsequent generations of American founders, including Abraham Lincoln and 20th century civil rights leaders. He noted the analogy Americans had made, comparing Moses and Pharaoh to George Washington and England’s King George III, illustrating how biblical archetypes informed cultural and political discourse, often in complex ways. “To the colonists, King George was Pharaoh, but George Washington owned slaves. These stories can be used both by and against the founding fathers.” 

Their conversation further explored the dynamic relationship between religious narratives and national mythologies. Referencing pivotal moments in American history, such as Frederick Douglass's scathing rebuke of Americans in an Independence Day speech delivered on the 5th of July, and the Pilgrims' quest for religious liberty, Dr. Halpern demonstrated how Americans have long seen the Exodus story in their own national narrative. “The value of freedom is so built into the American ethos, and so built into the Pesach story,” he explained. 

Amidst discussions of cultural appropriation and the evolving landscape of religious identity in America, the conversation turned introspective. Mr. Kirsch reflected on his personal connection to the Haggadah, acknowledging its capacity for reinterpretation in changing times. “Judaism is a tradition of reinterpreting the same text in different ways,” he explained, “it’s like going back to the same well and drawing water from it.” After 9/11 and a subsequent terror attack at the Park Hotel in Israel during Pesach of 2002, the oppression of the Egyptians and the Exodus took on a new meaning. “It was the first time I’d felt like they were rising against me, right now,” Mr. Kirsch shared.  To him, the text finally felt like “a contemporary truth.”

As the evening drew to a close, Dr. Halpern and Mr. Kirsch grappled with the complexities of the contemporary Jewish American experience. “What does ‘Next Year in Jerusalem’ mean to us?” asked Mr. Kirsch. “We don’t go - why are we saying it? This is an interesting question to be thinking about,” he reflected. In response, Dr. Halpern considered past Haggadahs that had been published in the United States but with the phrase “Next Year In Jerusalem '' left untranslated from the original Hebrew, out of fear of charges of Jewish disloyalty. Despite the difficulty of this historical reality, Dr. Halpern affirmed the unique position of American Jewry today. “Today we live in a land where we express this yearning freely - in this country, we can say it loudly and proudly.”

At the conclusion of the event, attendees were gifted copies of The Promise of Liberty, made possible by the generous sponsorship from the Paul E. Singer Foundation.