The Rose Family Seder Books are unique collections of Passover-themed artwork. For over 60 years, the Rose family has commissioned artwork from some of the most prominent American artists to create these seder books as part of a family tradition around Passover—the annual Jewish holiday celebrating the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in ancient Egypt. Thanks to the Rose family’s continuing generosity, the books are now part of the Library’s Dorot Jewish Division.
Artists and approaches represented in this decades-long collaboration range from New York social realist Jack Levine to New York Review of Books caricaturist David Levine and include some of the most prominent American artists of the 20th century. Many of the contributors were Jewish, often from New York. Some, including Saul Raskin, Leonard Baskin, and Larry Rivers, were already famous for treating Jewish themes; others, such as Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser, were not. Other notable contributors include the Spanish-American Expressionist Federico Castellón and the Israeli Social Realist Naftali Bezem. Materials and techniques employed in these volumes range from a stained-glass window design executed in mylar to several pages of Frank Stella’s sculptural paper puzzle constructions.
This year's display features illustrations by American artists Sam Fink (1916–2011) and Michel Schwartz (1926–2011). From Volume 2 (1971–89), Fink's exquisite calligraphy depicts the story of Exodus 12 and explains the Exodus from Egypt. From Volume 3 (1990–2002), Schwartz embellishes a traditional Passover Seder plate with Hebrew and English micrographics, creating a kind of delicate tracery.
