Katrin Kogman Appel (Universität Münster): Ritual and History: The Illustrated Ashkenazi Haggadah as Didactic Tool

Prague Centre for Jewish Studies invites you to the seminar „Ritual and History: The Illustrated Ashkenazi Haggadah as Didactic Tool“ that will be given by Professor Katrin Kogman Appel, Alexander von Humboldt-Professor for Jewish Studies at the University Münster.

We shall examine some aspects of the illustration programs in late medieval haggadot from Ashkenaz for didactic elements in their pictorial language. The haggadah was composed to follow the divine precept to teach one’s son the narrative of Israel’s departure from Egypt (“And you shall tell your son on this Day,” Ex. 13:8). This requirement turned the haggadah into a document of teaching and the late medieval picture cycles were composed accordingly in part as an aid to fulfill these didactic functions.