American literary heavyweights produce radical new haggadah

Jonathan Safran Foer told the JC this week that the idea for the new haggadah came to him six years ago at his own family's Seder "which was nice, all of us gathered around a long table, but it could have been exceptional. I felt it was a missed opportunity.

"The haggadahs we used didn't meet the standards we apply to secular books. The discussion was interesting, but not interesting like Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic is interesting, not thought-provoking like Rebecca Goldstein is thought-provoking. I wanted a haggadah that would involve a richer engagement with the text and images."

At one point, Mr Safran Foer had gathered 20 or so collaborators - including several leading literary and academic names - for the project, which he expected would produce a radical departure from the normal Seder text and experience. But this early experiment was abandoned.

"I didn't want it to have the feel of an anthology," he explained. "Though no part of me believes in the literal truth of the events described in the Passover story, they are time-tested metaphors and symbols to help us think about our lives. So we ended up with something more conservative, spiritually and aesthetically."

The result is certainly a serious and substantial piece of work. Its commentators cite Kafka as well as Moses, Wittgenstein as well as Elijah. It is universal, too - it is named as American, says Foer, simply in line with the tradition of naming a haggadah after the place where it is made.

Jonathan Safran Foer will launch the haggadah with Jeffrey Goldberg at Jewish Book Week on February 25. It will be published by Hamish Hamilton.