Shai Azoulay | The Passover Haggadah

We are thrilled to announce the publication of The Passover Haggadah: An Ancient Story for Modern Times by Tablet Magazine, written by Alana Newhouse and fully illustrated by Shai Azoulay. Based in Jerusalem, Azoulay is the ultimate visionary artist. Trained at the Bezalel Academy, his work has been shown around the world and was the focus of a solo show at the Tel Aviv Museum in 2011. Azoulay’s works – large and small paintings, as well as drawings and “painting installations” – are the manifestation of the artist’s mind, a mind that is always at work, always full of visions, visions that take the history of art and the context of Jerusalem in order to create a unique mix that is at time ironic and at times poetic.

The celebration of Passover provides an annual opportunity for the Jewish people to imagine themselves in the ancient past of their ancestors, with an awareness of both the present and the future. The Haggadah is the means through which observers take this temporal journey, blending story and ritual with reflection and inquiry. Tablet's modern take on the traditional text recognizes its critical function, marrying written and visual worlds that are equally imaginative and immersive. Unlike other Haggadahs in which artwork is simply placed alongside the text, Shai Azoulay’s is woven directly into it – creating a magical effect, a cohesive textual and visual embrace with the power to transform users' personal and familial experiences of the Passover Seder.