It is the Haggadah many Jewish people grew up reading at Seder tables during Passover--the Maxwell House Haggadah, which has been offered free at supermarkets since the early 1930s.
More than 50 million copies have been printed since that time and the coffee company issued a new edition in time for Tuesday's start of Passover. (The last version was updated in 1998.)
While the Maxwell House Haggadah isn't flying off supermarket shelves at it may have in years past, it brings back memories for local Jews.
Article Photos
(Mirror photo by J.D. Cavrich) Sam Bilofsky, 11, (left) and Mandi Sky, 11, hold old and new Haggadahs published by Maxwell House coffee.
"I used it as a kid," Hazzan Michael Horwitz, cantor at Agudath Achim Synagogue in Altoona said. "People don't use them as much. They just bring back really great memories."
Last year Horwitz found a box of 20 of his grandparents' old Maxwell House Haggadahs. Horwitz added them to his collection of about 100 Haggadahs. He buys a new Haggadah every year and picked up a copy of the new Maxwell House version this year.
Bill Wallen, executive director of the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation also remembers the Maxwell House Haggadah.
"Many people grew up with this as the Haggadah in their home," Wallen said.
The Maxwell House Haggadah reminds Rabbi Audrey Korotkin, of Temple Beth Israel of her grandparents.
"It brings back a lot of memories," she said.
When Korotkin graduated from college and moved into her first apartment, her grandmother gave her a set of the old Maxwell House Haggadahs, along with a Seder plate.
"It was sort of carrying on of my grandparents' tradition," Korotkin said. In recent years however, Korotkin and her family and friends have used the Reform movement versions of the Haggadah, whereas the Maxwell House version has historically been more traditional.
But this year, Korotkin said she might use the Maxwell House Haggadah at the Seder at her home.
"I think the new Maxwell House one gives people a really nice option. It's more contemporary. It's easy to understand and easy to follow," she said
The story of the Maxwell House Haggadah began in 1923 when an Orthodox rabbi confirmed that a coffee bean is not a legume, which is forbidden during Passover, but a berry.
About a decade after this declaration, the Maxwell House Haggadah was born. It is much like other ones which include instructions, prayers, hymns and commentary for Passover.
The books are given to everyone at the Seder table to follow along during the meal, which can last two or more hours. Everyone at the meal is expected to participate in the retelling of the deliverance of the Jews from slavery more than 3,000 years ago.
Rabbi Yossi Stein and his wife, Chana'le, of the Chabad Lubavitch Center of Greater Altoona will host a community Seder in their Duncansville home.
For the Seder, the Steins ordered 30 Haggadahs.
"These are for people who are not necessarily used to a Seder. It explains everything," Chana'le said.
