The Sarajevo Haggadah has withstood war and persecution, bearing silent witness to tumultuous events
children asked at the Passover meal last week, is this night different from all others? The question is stipulated in the Haggadah, a ritual book that recounts the Israelites’ escape from bondage in Egypt. One example, known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, is itself different from all others. At least 650 years old, its calfskin pages are still vibrantly illuminated with gold, lapis lazuli and malachite.
In 1894 the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina bought the Haggadah from a Sephardic family in Sarajevo. During the second world war, when most of the city’s Jews perished, German troops searched for the legendary tome. The museum’s director, Jozo Petrovic, a Catholic Croat, and Dervis Korkut, a Muslim curator, bravely hid the Haggadah in a mountain village, reputedly inside a mosque.
Ms Brooks first heard about the Sarajevo Haggadah when, as they hunkered in a hotel bar during a bombardment, fellow war correspondents speculated about its fate. Afterwards she wrote a bestselling, fictionalised account of the Haggadah’s history, “People of the Book”. “It’s the same story repeating itself in different eras in different countries,” she says of the saga. “Something rises up and wants to wipe out everyone who doesn’t belong.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why Some Women Choose To Pay For SexIn Australia, where sex work is (mostly) legal, women are paying to get laid and loving it.
Read more »
Why Your Coronavirus Stimulus Check Isn’t Here YetA quick primer on who is entitled to a stimulus check, why you might not have received yours yet, and what you can do to make sure the IRS eventually gives you what you’re owed
Read more »
Why an analyst bullish on Gilead says antiviral drug ‘won’t solve’ COVID-19“Did remdesivir just ‘solve’ COVID? No,” says Umer Raffat, an analyst at Evercore ISI.
Read more »
Why it matters that Kellyanne Conway flubbed a basic COVID-19 detailPerhaps the case against the World Health Organization isn't quite as compelling as Team Trump likes to think?
Read more »