Obj. ID: 36111  Haggadah shel Pesach, Prague, 1889

This text was prepared by William Gross:

Kisch, Alexander. DIE PESSACH-HAGADA [KISCH HAGGADAH]. Prague; Pascheles, 1889. Original Gilt stamped boards. 12mo. 78 pages. 17 cm. The first Haggadah to use modern style illustrations, now known as the Kisch Haggadah. 1ST Edition. Illustrated by Cyril Kutlik. Haggadah in vocalized Hebrew with German translation. “The Haggadah of Passover, prayer and rites at the family table for the first two evenings of Passover. With 12 artistic illustrations subsequently performed. The traditional Hebrew text with new German translation and explanation provided by... Dr. Alexander Kisch, rabbi and preacher in Prague. “ Although Yerushalmi correctly records this Hagadah as Prague 1889, the illustration he depicts in his “Haggadah & History” (no. 118) is actually the second edition and printed without a date on the title (see Yudlov 2135 who dates it ca. 1900). The present copy, with date clearly visible on the title-page, is the “real” first appearance of this Hagadah. Alexander Kisch was a “rabbi and writer; born Oct. 5, 1848, at Prague. From 1863 to 1872 he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau. He then went to Paris as tutor to the family of Baron Horace de Günzburg. In 1874 he was called as rabbi to Brüx, Bohemia, and subsequently to Zurich; in 1886 he was called to the Meiselsynagogue at Prague, succeeding Dr. A. Stein” (1906 Jewish Encyclopedia). Yaari 1388. Yudlov 1783.

This is the publication of the Haggadah with the first czech translation. Many of the illustrations are not copies of earlier editions and the binding is gold stamped with an illustration of the entrance to a synagogue.. Editor: Rabbi Alexander Kisch