{"id":103182,"date":"2023-04-10T17:05:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T15:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=103182"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:32:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T12:32:46","slug":"02-05-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=103182","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Original Bestselling Haggadah"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>America\u2019s Original Bestselling Haggadah<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n


\nJENNA WEISSMAN JOSELIT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Before there was Maxwell House, there was Mrs. Philip Cowen\u2019s \u2018Seder Service\u2019.<\/strong><\/span>
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\nA 1935 edition of The Seder ServiceVIRTUAL JUDAICA<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Move over, Maxwell House Haggadah<\/em>. It\u2019s time to share the limelight with one of your kin: Mrs. Philip Cowen\u2019s The Seder Service for Passover<\/em> Eve in the Home<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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First published in New York in 1904, this equally American, homegrown version of the traditional ritual text went on to sell nearly a quarter of a million copies before being dislodged from its perch three decades later by the Maxwell House product, whose corporate pedigree and price tag\u2014there wasn\u2019t any\u2014rendered it particularly attractive. In its heyday, though, Mrs. Cowen\u2019s text reigned supreme: the prima donna of haggadot<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nothing else was quite like it. Or, as one well-disposed New York observer put it at the time, speaking for others as well as for himself, \u201cWe have no hesitation in stating that it is just what English-speaking Jews have long wanted.\u201d A smooth amalgam of Hebrew and English text; scholarship, music, and visual detail; typographical ingenuity, helpful \u201cinstructions,\u201d and \u201climp leather\u201d binding, Mrs. Cowen\u2019s Seder Service<\/em> shone brightly: the \u201chaggadah in a new dress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Easy to read and handle, this version was used by schoolchildren and their families; by patrons of the State Bank of New York, among whom it was distributed as a gift; and by American Jewish servicemen during WWI, who received a free copy along with a ration of matzo, courtesy of the Jewish Welfare Board.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Seder Service<\/em> also found favor among both Orthodox and Reform Jews at the grass roots, bridging what many believed to be an uncomfortable divide between the two. Giving new meaning to the old adage about reading the fine print, Seder Service <\/em>made it possible for an Orthodox Jew and a Reform Jew to sit side by side at the same Seder table by signaling through means of typeface and layout which aspects of the Seder were not to be skipped (see: large type, full lines) and which could be passed over (see: small print, indented lines). In that way, Mrs. Cowen acknowledged, \u201cno fault should be found with the suggestion it conveys, as he who wishes may read every line of the older service, for not a word has been here omitted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How sensible, even artful, it was for Mrs. Cowen to mitigate the perils of omission\u2014and the ensuing family drama\u2014through the use of space and ink. Her text did double duty: It came in handy for those in pursuit of flexibility and a speedy Seder (away with all those \u201crabbinic dissertations\u201d) and met the needs of those in pursuit of the tried and true, who were given to lingering over every word.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Both innovation and tradition found a place for themselves in Mrs. Cowen\u2019s pages, prompting one of the publication\u2019s many full-page advertisements to crow that it would appeal simultaneously to the Orthodox and \u201ccommend itself to people who prefer a modernized version.\u201d Another advertisement said it would even \u201cdefy the scoffer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Inclusive long before that word and practice became de rigueur, Seder Service <\/em>also made room for a handful of Sephardic customs, among them its distinctive Grace After Meals. Those who were \u201caccustomed to the Portuguese ritual\u201d were duly informed that they would find this haggadah a real boon.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite its best efforts to please, not everyone was happy with Cowen\u2019s holiday offering, the prices of which ranged from 30 cents for an ordinary paper copy to a deluxe edition, with the owner\u2019s name imprinted on the cover, for $2.50. Some Passover celebrants preferred the familiarity of an old, wine-speckled haggadah from the Old World to one that was bright and shiny and made in the New.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still others questioned altogether the need for an updated version, asking rhetorically, in the spirit of the day, \u201cShall we or shall we not cast aside the old haggadahs that have become endeared to us with all their typographic frailties and artistic incongruities?\u201d Perhaps something could be said for holding on to them?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And still other critics found fault with Mrs. Cowen\u2019s translation skills, unaware that in quibbling over this word and that, they were taking on the King James Bible from which Mrs. Cowen had drawn.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Near as I can tell, no one took exception to and grumbled publicly about this particular haggadah having been \u201carranged\u201d by a woman\u2014and a real woman at that, not a corporate invention \u00e0 la Betty Crocker.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Mrs. of the book\u2019s title\u2014a.k.a. Lillie Goldsmith Cowen\u2014was the wife of Philip Cowen, the longtime publisher of The American Hebrew<\/em>, and the mother of Elfrida, who married M. Leon Solis-Cohen. A skilled typesetter in her own right as well as a deft editor who wielded a \u201crelentless pencil,\u201d or so boasted her proud husband, Mrs. Cowen turned her talents to modernizing the haggadah.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nor did anyone even hint, at least not overtly, that by compiling this text and putting her (married) name on its cover, Mrs. Philip Cowen had crossed a line.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She hadn\u2019t. At no time did Mrs. Cowen put on airs or sail under false colors by assuming the mantle of a rabbi or a scholar. On the contrary. She made a point of emphasizing that her role throughout had been a \u201chumble one\u201d\u2014she was acting only in her capacity as a \u201cdaughter of Israel\u201d\u2014and that all of the important tasks, including supplying the scholarly, explanatory material and arranging the musical selections, had been fielded by others far more eminent, most notably Professor Solomon Schechter, president of the Faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, who was responsible for that first task, and Rev. S. Rappaport, cantor of New York\u2019s West End Synagogue, who was accountable for the second.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Whatever cultural authority Mrs. Cowen wore\u2014and lightly so\u2014was of an experiential nature: the \u201cresult,\u201d as she put it, writing in the third person, \u201cof considerable experience in celebrating the Passover in her home by the author.\u201d The credentials she subtly brandished were those earned through familiarity with domestic Jewish ritual practice and won thanks to sure-footedness in the kitchen and at the dining-room table.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Admittedly, there\u2019s not a recipe to be had, not even one for haroset<\/em>. But in its sensibility\u2014its marriage of tone and practice\u2014Mrs. Cowen\u2019s Seder Service<\/em> was as much a modern expression of Jewish housewifery as it was an age-old vehicle for the transmission of Jewish history.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At this point, you may well ask: How did all this come to pass?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the origin story that appeared in Memories of an American Jew<\/em>, Mr. Cowen\u2019s 1932 memoir, the Cowens once hosted a Passover Seder at which their guests\u2019 children characterized the illustrations in the haggadah set before them as \u201ccurious.\u201d To make matters worse, the youngsters also had a good laugh at the English translation and \u201cgave vent to their surprise that the Lord couched his instructions to Moses in such awful English.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A toned-down version of the same story had also appeared years earlier in the preface to the third edition (1906) of Mrs. Cowen\u2019s Seder Service.<\/em> In it, she told in her own voice and words of having hosted a Passover Seder one year that was \u201cmarred because of typographical blunders, bad grammar and mis-translations which abounded in the books used.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In both iterations of the tale, Mrs. Cowen had an aha moment that culminated in her \u201cdetermination\u201d to remedy matters by coming up with a haggadah that \u201cwould not cause derision among the younger generation.\u201d As her husband would later recount, \u201cMy wife kept her word and a few years later published The Seder Service<\/em>, which, because of its fine English and musical arrangements, was instrumental in bringing about a revival of the Passover celebration in the United States.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This was no spouse\u2019s idle boast\u2014well, not entirely. If contemporaneous accounts are to be believed, the celebration of Passover received quite a boost from the release of Mrs. Cowen\u2019s haggadah, experiencing a momentary surge in popularity. \u201cThere can be no doubt that by this new publication of yours, you have on your part done very much towards re-awakening an interest in and love for the beautiful Seder service which had fallen into neglect in so many Jewish families,\u201d acknowledged a fan in 1905. Another, writing from the Midwest three years later, pointed out that thanks to the modern haggadah, \u201cit is becoming customary again to usher in the Passover with a service in the home, with the family table laid for the evening meal, as an altar.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I suspect there was a bit more to the Seder\u2019s flurry of popularity than that. No matter how avidly anticipated or quickly seized upon, Mrs. Cowen\u2019s The Seder Service for Passover Eve in the Home<\/em> could not have single-handedly turned the tide of desuetude. Other factors\u2014immigration comes readily to mind\u2014were no doubt at play.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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All the same, it made for a good story. Almost as good a story as the one nestled in its pages.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jenna Weissman Joselit<\/a>,<\/strong> the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies & Professor of History at the George Washington University, is currently at work on a biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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America\u2019s Original Bestselling Haggadah JENNA WEISSMAN JOSELIT Before there was Maxwell House, there was Mrs. Philip Cowen\u2019s \u2018Seder Service\u2019. . A 1935 edition of The Seder ServiceVIRTUAL JUDAICA Move over, Maxwell House Haggadah. It\u2019s time to share the limelight with one of your kin: Mrs. Philip Cowen\u2019s The Seder Service for Passover Eve in the Home. First […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103182"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103285,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103182\/revisions\/103285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}