What is the connection between Temple B’nai Israel and last night’s White House seder?
In a recent post, we highlighted a new exhibit from our Library collection, A Century of Haggadot. We made special mention of our collection of different versions of the Maxwell House Coffee Haggadah, dating from 1937 to 2006. Here is how Maxwell House explains this Passover phenomenon:
The haggadah has been offered by Maxwell House continuously since the early 1930s…Maxwell House coffee has been recognized as a friend of the Jewish community since 1923, the year the well-known brand became certified as Kosher for Passover – the first coffee to seek this important designation.
Then, about a decade later, working with Joseph Jacobs Advertising and an Orthodox rabbi to ensure accuracy, Maxwell House printed their first haggadah. More than 70 years later, Maxwell House is still partnering with Joseph Jacobs to deliver the longest running sales promotion in advertising history. To this day, over 50 million haggadahs have been printed, making it the most widely used haggadah in the world.
No sooner did we mention this then we learned that at the historic Passover event, the Obama family and their guests used the Maxwell House Haggadah at their White House seder.
Is this related to our Temple B’nai Israel Library and site? Okay, probably not. As Maxwell House points out, it is the most widely used haggadah in the world (at least Maxwell House says so), so the odds are in their favor. Still, Jews everywhere are kvelling about the First Seder, Maxwell House is probably kvelling about being the First Haggadah, so as proud exhibitors of the haggadah Obama used, we can’t be blamed for kvelling a little too.
Tags: Haggadah, Passover, White House
