Anne Frank Unbound: Media, Imagination, Memory

7. Anne Frank, a Guest at the Seder

193 Anne Frank never mentions the Jewish holiday of Passover in her diary. There is no evidence in the diary that Anne ever attended a seder, the ritual meal traditionally held in Jewish homes on the first and second nights of Passover. Yet, every year when Jews recount the story of their freedomandredemptionfromslaveryinancientEgypt,Anneisa“guest” at many a seder through her presence in several American Passover haggadahs . Her appearance speaks not only to her familiarity and popularity , but also to the extent to which her writing has been readily adapted. The best-known words of Anne Frank—“I still believe that people are really good at heart,” part of a diary entry written on July 15, 1944—foster creative engagements with diverse understandings of slavery and freedom and their implications for American Jews wrestling with the legacy of the Holocaust. Passover is one of the most popular holidays for American Jews, and the haggadah, the text used to conduct the seder, is the most widely published Jewish text in the United States.1 Thousands of versions of the haggadah have been created over the centuries.2 Today, one can purchase or download a haggadah for a wide array of interests, including haggadahs with traditional commentary, a haggadah for Jews and Buddhists , a haggadah for a thirty-minute seder (the traditional ritual can last several hours), and haggadahs for activists committed to a variety of political causes. These politically engaged haggadahs follow the models of self-published haggadahs by left-wing activists in the 1960s and ’70s and, before those, haggadahs issued by secular Yiddishists and Zionists beginning in the 1930s. The traditional haggadah exhorts seder partici7 Anne Frank, a Guest at the Seder Liora Gubkin 194 Liora Gubkin pants to reflect upon the personal nature of oppression and its relevance inthepresentbyencouraginganimaginativeritualperformanceofidentification with the oppressed and by issuing a call to end all subjugation. While innovative haggadahs typically follow the basic structure of the traditional text, they may complement ritual instructions, biblical passages ,andearlyrabbiniccommentarieswithselectionsfrommodernand contemporary texts, including Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, that spanthedimensionsoftimeandplace.ManyinnovativehaggadahspublishedintheUnitedStatesduringthelastfortyyearsusetheseadditional texts to deliberately link the ancient Israelite journey from slavery to freedom with such contemporary social and political issues as the threat of nuclear war, theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict,vegetarianism, feminism, the oppression of Soviet Jewry, and the Holocaust. ThisapproachtopersonalizingJewishreligiouspracticebyconnecting it to current concerns is consistent with a major trend in contemporary American religious life generally. In the post–World War II era, many Americans expect religious practice to be personally meaningful. Rather than simply accepting the religious beliefs of their forebears, Americans today are more likely to approach religion as an individualized quest for spiritual meaning and thus feel entitled to adapt their religious rituals accordingly.3 Because the Passover seder is a domestic practice, most often celebrated with family and friends in the home, it is especially prone to personalization. The haggadah presents a script replete with lines to recite and actions to perform. Ritual actions, such as washing hands, breaking matzah, and drinking wine, provide a rich sensory experience for participants and facilitate their identification with the ancient Israelites celebrating freedom after surviving the harsh conditions of slavery. Accordingly, participants recite personal declarations such as “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt” and “It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth from Egypt.” Identificationisnotonlyamatterofconnectingthedistantpastandthepresent . Rather, the haggadah informs participants that slavery and redemption recur “in every generation.” Mid-twentieth-century European Jews readily connected their situation with the plight of the ancient Israelites, naming Hitler as the Pharaoh of their day. Haggadahs that interpret the Nazi persecution of Anne Frank, a Guest at the seder 195 European Jewry as parallel to the ancient Israelites’ experience as slaves inEgyptwerecreatedduringWorldWarII,andsedersheldbyHolocaust survivors in Displaced Persons camps immediately after the war further developed this connection.4 American Jews also articulated the parallel betweentheancientstoryofPassoverandtheHolocaustinnewversions of the haggadah, beginning with an oblique reference to the persecution of European Jews in the dedication to The Haggadah of Passover for Members of the Armed Forces of the United States, issued in 1943. There, theCommitteeonArmyandNavyReligiousActivitiesnotes,“ThePassover Festival of Freedom has never been observed more poignantly than today, when we are struggling to preserve freedom for man.”5 The start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during Passover 1943 further prompted commemorations of the Holocaust during the holiday.6 Beginning in 1952,the“SederRitualofRemembrance,”athree-paragraphtext“forthe sixmillionJewswhoperishedatthehandsoftheNazisandfortheheroes of the ghetto uprisings...