[HANASHIR:10350] www.ajc.org/thanksgiving_hag.asp Thanksgiving Haggadah honors 9/11 victims

[PKellyJr <PKellyJr...>]

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (JTA) — Ann Schaffer didn´t think she could celebrate 
Thanksgiving as usual this year, so soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 
11. "To come to the table and not acknowledge what has happened would be very 
difficult," said Schaffer, director of the American Jewish Committee´s Belfer 
Center for Intergroup Relations. When Schaffer found she wasn´t alone in 
these concerns, she and several colleagues decided to create a "Thanksgiving 
Haggadah" to help people incorporate into the annual fall holiday a memorial 
to the victims of the attacks."With Thanksgiving approaching, we began to 
wonder how we could both celebrate — and still acknowledge the deep pain and 
sense of loss that so many in our community are feeling," Schaffer said. "We 
felt that some ritual and some words would help us through this. As Jews, we 
are accustomed to framing significant events with appropriate blessings, 
prayers and readings." The Haggadah, as it turned out, fit well with the 
AJCommittee´s mission, says Schaffer."As an American, Jewish committee, we 
are concerned about both the American and Jewish aspects of our lives," 
Schaffer said. "The recent attacks have heightened our awareness both of our 
fragility as Americans and of our connection to Israel, which has long been a 
target of terrorist attacks. And as we gather around the Thanksgiving table, 
we bring our Jewish concerns to the table as well."The Haggadah model enables 
them to strike an appropriate mix of mourning and hope in the traditional 
Thanksgiving gathering."Haggadah, after all, means a telling," Schaffer said. 
"You can use a Haggadah for almost any event." Haggadahs are used for 
Passover and, sometimes, for Tu B´Shevat.The Thanksgiving version takes some 
of the Passover rituals and applies them to themes of mourning and giving 
thanks. Sections include "Why is this Thanksgiving different?" "What have we 
lost?" "What have we learned?" and "What do we tell our children?" The 
Haggadah includes special activities for children, such as "Four Questions" 
that children answer, not ask. The four-page booklet also includes quotes 
from the Bible, rabbis and poets and several transliterated prayers. The 
AJCommittee sent the Haggadah in early November to rabbis across the country, 
encouraging them to make copies for their congregants. They also posted the 
booklet on the group´s Web site — www.ajc.org — for people to download, 
and 
sent it out as part of the organization´s bimonthly journal.