Dry Bones Haggadah goes hardcover

The lavish Haggadah provides a complete, traditional text in Hebrew and English.

By SALLY RIPS
Yaakov Kirschen, The Jerusalem Post’s famous Dry Bones cartoonist, (photo credit: Courtesy)
Yaakov Kirschen, The Jerusalem Post’s famous Dry Bones cartoonist,
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Longtime Jerusalem Post illustrator Yaakov “Dry Bones” Kirschen has published his popular Passover Haggadah in a hardcover format ahead of the holiday this month.
The lavish Haggadah, generously annotated with Dry Bones cartoons, provides a complete, traditional text in Hebrew and English.
“I realized that I do cartoons for people based on the news, but the news keeps changing and life goes on, and ‘Dry Bones’ would like to talk not only to people today, but to comment on the Jewish experience of the past and to talk to generations coming after. The only way to do that is to talk to them when they’re sitting down at the Passover Seder because that’s the one time they’re all together,” said Kirschen.
This new hardcover printing of the 104- page book was designed by Jerusalem book designer S. Kim Glassman, with input from Tel Aviv painter and colorist Sali Ariel, Kirschen’s wife, business partner and editor.
For the page layout of the Dry Bones Haggadah the Dry Bones team decided to use a uniquely Jewish approach. It is modeled on the layout used by the pages of the Talmud; The main text appearing in the middle of the page being surrounded by commentary. In this Haggadah, the traditional text and translation appear in the middle of each page being surrounded by Dry Bones cartoon commentary.
“Everyone knows that the Jews have survived as a people, and nobody really knows why. They think we have a secret book, and we do, but its identity is more obvious than most would think. The secret book of the Jews is the Passover Haggadah. We have a guidebook for a ceremony that we do in our homes, every year, in order to teach the next generation,” said Kirschen.
The Dry Bones Passover Haggadah is distributed by Amazon.com and is available from www.store.drybones.com.