‘In every generation:’ Haggadah supplements put October 7 reckoning on Seder plate
Additions to traditional tract allow holiday celebrants to grapple with trauma of terror and ongoing hostage crisis casting shadow on festival of freedom

With just hours to go before Jews around the world sit down for the first Passover Seder since the October 7 onslaught, many are reckoning fully for the first time with how to discuss the pain of the last seven months at their tables.
On October 7, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed the Jewish state’s south to kill nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and take over 250 hostages.
A diverse array of Jewish groups and leaders have produced materials designed to help Seder-goers broach the trauma.
The traditional Seder text, the Passover Haggadah, offers a durable framework for grappling with a world that includes both danger and resilience for the Jewish people.

The new supplements aim to help Jews connect that story with current events, including the attack on Israel, the Gaza war sparked by the attack and rising reports of antisemitism around the world. The supplements come from Jews and Jewish institutions across the political, ideological and religious spectrum.
Here’s a (non-exhaustive) selection of some of the many supplements released this year, all of which can be printed at home for those who choose to do so.
- Under the direction of Rabbi Mishael Zion, the Hartman Institute produced an extensive supplement that includes contributions from people directly affected by October 7 and an essay by prominent Israeli author David Grossman.
- Rabbi Menachem Creditor and Ora Horn Prouser, respectively the CEO and dean of the Academy of Jewish Religion, edited a supplement that begins, “I am at the Seder, but my heart is in October.”
- The Schechter Rabbinical Assembly in Israel crafted a supplement that is available in Hebrew and English and includes poetry written during a daylong conference about adapting Passover for the current moment.
- A digital supplement by New York City’s Reform Central Synagogue places a focus on poetry written by Israeli poets since October 7, while the Central Conference of American Rabbis, a Reform rabbinic leadership group, has released its own Haggadah.
- The Hostage and Missing Families Forum has created a full Haggadah that features those who remain hostages in Gaza. Proceeds from the sale of the digital version will go toward the organization’s advocacy.
- The Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership at New York’s Yeshiva University issued a supplement with a specific October 7-related teaching or question for each step of the seder.
- The Pardes Institute’s supplement challenges users to draw direct parallels between Pharaoh and Hamas.
- Rabbi Joshua Kulp created a supplement that draws on Haggadahs produced by kibbutz communities during Israel’s early years. Some of the kibbutzim were attacked on October 7.
- An international coalition of what its members call “the religious left” put out a reader meditating on the Seder’s themes which calls for “teshuva [to be] done for the injustices of the Nakba and the occupation,” using the Hebrew word for repentance.
- The supplement from Bayit includes several poems, one of which reimagines the “four sons” of the traditional Haggadah as contemporary Jews: “a Zionist, a Palestinian solidarity activist, a peacenik, and one who doesn’t know what to even dream.”
- The Kveller Haggadah, which the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s families-focused sister site has put out for the past four years, this year includes an October 7 supplement with seven ways for Seder-goers to address the crisis in Israel and Gaza.