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Redemption in Catalonia and Bosnia: The Sarajevo Haggadah

JL;DR SUMMARY The Sarajevo Haggadah, a renowned medieval illustrated Hebrew manuscript, is a symbol of resilience and Jewish history that traces its mysterious journey from 14th-century Catalonia to Sarajevo. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

PassoverExileJewish ArtRedemptionCataloniaSarajevo HaggadahMedieval ManuscriptsIllustrated HaggadotDervis KorkutFacsimile Production

Places mentioned

Sarajevo, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
"how this haggadah reached Sarajevo, and how it eventually came into the hands of the Cohen family some 400 years after the Spanish Expulsion, is unknown, but the subsequent history of the book is the stuff of legend."
Catalonia, Spain
"of seven surviving illustrated haggadot that were produced in Catalonia, part of the Crown of Aragon, in the first half of the 14th century."
Vienna, Austria
"Almost immediately after acquiring it in 1894, the National Museum sent it off to Vienna to be restoredSarajevo was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empireand commissioned two German scholars to produce a facsimile of the Haggadah with introductory essays."
Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"World War II, after the fall of Sarajevo, the Nazis eagerly sought out the famous work in order to display it in the Museum of the Extinct Race that they were planning to build in Prague."
Israel
"is accompanied by a book-length study by the distinguished Israeli art historian Shalom Sabar, the most comprehensive and complete analysis of the Haggadah yet written."
Spain
"moving directly from the Bible to contemporary Jewish life, the biblical illustrations in the Catalonian haggadot aimed to refute this claim."
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Cairo Item ID 43747
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Retrieved 2025-02-07 05:31:18 UTC
Curated 2025-02-07 08:32:17 UTC