GREAT IDEAS

Temple Israel Personalizes Family Haggadot

Making seders livelier and more personal

Rabbi Rob Morais, Director of Education and Lifelong Learning at Temple Israel, W. Bloomfield, MI, faced a dilemma— how could his congregational families make their Passover seders livelier and more personal?

Rabbi Morais found the solution when he received an email from Behrman House announcing the Customized Family Haggadah.

The result: Temple Israel is offering their families a two-part “Haggadah creating experience,” on March 7th and 14th from 10-11:30 am, to “guide families through the process of creating an amazing heirloom full of pictures and family memories.” Families will then have the option of printing as many copies of their own personalized Family Hagadah as they like.

The first class will present tips for running a great seder and will end with an online, on-screen demo of how to upload up to 50 personal photos and personal text to the Customized Family Haggadah. In the second class, families will bring in a few sample photos and personal writings including favorite seder discussion questions and will create a haggadah together. Families will then go home and create their own.

“How cool is it to have pictures of yourself in your own haggadah!” says Rabbi Morais. “It’s an amazing snapshot of that time and place. My own family can do one every year—Passover 2010, 2011, and so on—and see our kids grow up through these books. We can even include photos of people who are no longer with us. Passover is an amazingly powerful family time. The Customized Family Haggadah can be a treasure for years to come.”

Rob can be reached at rmorais@temple-israel.org

NEW FACES

Behrman House Digital Department Is Growing

Welcoming Aaron Schachter

Behrman House is pleased to welcome Aaron Schachter to its creative team. Aaron will bring his extensive programming experience to our new partner, BabagaNewz.com, where he will devote his considerable IT skills to updating existing games, creating exciting new ones, and helping the site enrich its multi-media content.

In addition to his love of making the internet a better place, Aaron’s other passions include painting, cartooning, music, and comedy. He can be reached at aaron@behrmanhouse.com

HOLIDAY HINTS

Pesach Preview!

Looking for a new classroom activity for Passover?

By Sara Marx

This year, Pesach comes early! Pesach Playlist is a fun activity —designed to look like a set of iPods—that supplements each section of the Haggadah. Post the “tracks” on the classroom wall or bulletin board, and then have students take turns picking numbers from a hat and answering the questions on the matching bookmark. You can also email the link to parents and encourage them to use the activity at their family seder.
More Pesach resources, including articles and lessons, can be found here.

Sara Marx, Editor at BabagaNewz.com, can be reached at sara@behrmanhouse.com

COMING SOON

The Prophet's Wife by Milton Steinberg

Release of Book is Major Literary Event

When Milton Steinberg died in 1950, he left one manuscript tantalizingly unfinished. Like As a Driven Leaf, it is grand in scope, while told as a compelling personal tale. Set against a backdrop of unrest in ancient Israel, The Prophet's Wife is a stirring portrait of the biblical prophet Hosea, his passionate and free-spirited wife Gomer, and a people seduced by the lures of power and idolatry to betray their faith.

In March, Behrman House will publish The Prophet’s Wife with commentaries by a triumvirate of important contemporary writers—Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, Ari L. Goldman and Norma Rosen.

The significance of the posthumous publication of The Prophet’s Wife is broad, bridging literary and theological worlds. Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles calls the discovery of this new work by Steinberg, “a gripping and wondrous event . . the greatest voice of the American pulpit reaches out to us from the past.”

Watch for news of the weekend-long book launch at Park Avenue Synagogue, New York City, March 19–21. We hope you’ll join us!

ON THE ROAD

Visiting with Educators

JEA College Park, Maryland, January 2010

Behrman House regularly visits educators across the US and Canada. Look for photos of yourself here!