Serena Berman is a writer, performer, and producer. She is a resident artist at Ars Nova and is frequently type-cast as a Jewish teenager.

Last year, freshly unemployed and locked in our apartment, my partner Jake and I put together an “Artist’s Haggadah” with a group of Jewish theatermakers. It was an idea Jake had had the year before, but schedules were busy and Passover was upon us, so we thought, “maybe next year.” Next year came, and suddenly nobody’s schedules were quite as busy. The exercise, I think, proved to be a cathartic release of feelings about our present moment. One we couldn’t have anticipated in 2019. 

2021 is a new moment. It’s not quite what it was last year, but it hasn’t quite returned to what it was the year before that either. We’re in a series of years that have reminded us that even while traditions stay the same, the way we experience them changes in unimaginable ways.

So we’ve put together a second edition of the Artist’s Haggadah.

We gave our writers from last year the option to reprint or update their pieces, and we broke down the sections further to bring in new voices. All in all, this book features the work of 15 brilliant Jewish artists (13 writers and 2 visual artists). I put together brief bios -- mostly culled from their websites -- that you’ll see scattered around the book (I've put our visual artists' bios below). Like last year, the artists were told they could do whatever they wanted with their sections. Some are funny, some serious, some personal, some traditional, some abstract. They vary in length, and as with any seder, you are free to pick and choose when to read aloud and when you might skim (if you’re really hungry, or really drunk). But I think we’ve put together a really beautiful seder for you.

Thank you to all the artist’s who gave their time and hearts to this haggadah. Thank you to all the Jews gathering together to share in it. Thank you to everyone who has offered me love and friendship between the last quarantined seder and this one. I am grateful for you all. 

Chag Pesach sameach!

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Artist bios:

Rosie Achorn-Rubenstein (cover) is a public defender in Portland, OR. As if that wasn’t enough, she is also a brilliant visual artist.

Sharone Halevy is a New York City commission-based abstract expressionist, as well as a director and teaching artist. She loves being inspired by the music and the people around her. 


haggadah Section: Introduction
Source: Serena Berman