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The Haggadah was given to Mrs.
Tybie Abrams on December 10,
2010 in Ruzhany, by a young man who
acted as a guide. They were in front
of the office of the Mayor, no further
identification of the young man is
available. He told Tybie that his
father told him to make sure this
religious service book for Passover
should one day be given to some Jewish
visitor to Ruzhany, and that it had
been found in the “home of the
jeweler.”
This remnant,
approximately 60 pages, is now
believed to be a Haggadah.
In
the process of researching the
“Ruzhany Haggadah” with the help of
research librarians at the Spertus
College of Judaica, Chicago,
complemented by the extraordinary
digging for this sacred book’s facts
of origin, with special thanks to Ms.
Sharon Horowitz of the Library of
Congress, this is what is now known
about this partial document. So far,
this work of “Judaica” is the only
work I know about that has been
uncovered from the Jewish inhabitants
who lived in Ruzhany between their
most probable first habitation since
this privately, Sapahia family-owned
market town was established in 1552
till the Jewish community’s “final”
demise in the Shoah, November 1942.
These pages, all of one Haggadah,
consisted of an approximate total of
87 numbered pages, 13 pages of a
Roman-enumerated preface incorporating
at least 10 images/graphics of various
sizes, beginning with its reproduced
(copied) cover page from the
so-called “Great Haggadah of Prague,”
first published in 1558. Tybie’s
unbound copy, a loose-paged remnant,
appears to be missing about 10 pages
from its preface (in the Yiddish
language) and 17-plus pages of the
original text.
According to the Yudelov Bibliography
of Haggadot, Ms. Horowitz has to date
identified four likely publishers and
related information. As translated
from the Hebrew these editions are
listed:
1.
N. Levin, Publisher, Vilna, Lithuania,
1922. Printed by I. Notes and S.
Szwajiich, edited by N. Niselovits,
approximate size 6-3/4 by 4 inches.
2.
Second edition (same as above), 1923,
same size.
3.
Third edition (same as above), 1925,
size increased to 9 by 6 inches.
4.
Shelomoh Funk, Publisher, Vilnia,
Lithuania. Printed by Express, 1931,
edited by H. Niselovits, 9 by 6
inches.
It is hoped that
future readers and/or dedicated
researchers will aid and contact Brian
(bzakem@comcast.net) when they
discover any materials that may
confirm the actual origins of this
so-called “Ruzhany Haggadah.”
Additional facts
and narratives concerning this
particular and/or related Haggadah
(i.e., its contents, how marketed,
etc.) may illuminate and further
uncover, as part of a meaningful
memorial, some Ruzhany’s residents,
their rich, very complex, Jewish
multicultural, multiethnic and
interreligious histories.
The
following pictures of Ruzhany were
taken by Tybie
Abrams a cousin of
Edith Vegotsky
Taylor, Co-coordinator of the Ruzhany
Yizkor Project.
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