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Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?: "The Four Questions" Around the World

by Ilana Kurshan

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292819,902 (1.5)13
This fascinating, informative, and beautifully illustrated books translates the Passover seder's Four Questions into twenty-three languages and provides capsule histories of the Jews in the countries where the languages are spoken. The recitation of the Four Questions at the beginning of the Passover seder by the youngest participant is one of the highlights of the evening and captures its very essence: to keep the memory of the Exodus of the Jews from Egyptian slavery alive in our minds, and to teach our children about their heritage and history. This unique volume covers a variety of languages of the Jewish Diaspora—from French to Farsi, from Latin to Ladino, from Amharic to Afrikaans, from Yiddish to Swedish to Chinese. For each language a translation (and, where necessary, a transliteration) of the Four Questions is provided, accompanied by a brief overview of Jewish life and culture among the speakers of the language, and an illustrations of either historical or contemporary interest. The perfect seder gift, Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? is also an excellent introduction to Jewish history in the Diaspora for young and old alike.… (more)
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This is more like the 4 answers rather than the 4 questions. It doesn't teach you how to ask the questions in the other languages, just how to answer them. It does show you how to ask the main question "Why is this night different from all the other nights?" in different languages.

I think the more useful thing in all of this is the interesting history lessons inbetween the languages. How many Jews are in India and that they are one of the lost tribes. Italy actually has one of the oldest Jewish communities in Europe and Jews were completely respected and everything. This is unheard of in most of Europe. Italy didn't become "anti-semitic" until 1943 when Italy surrendered to Hitler. (This does explain why the NY Italian and Jewish communities are generally so tight. I wonder if this is also why Jews and Italians look so much alike sometimes?) I need to research more into this. Another shocker, or maybe not given the only Romanians I know are really anti-semitic, but Romania was responsible for more Jewish deaths during WWII second ONLY to Germany.
  melsmarsh | Feb 7, 2013 |
Hear an interview with author Ilana Kurshan about Why Is This Night Different on The Book of Life podcast's "Passover Internationale" episode (April 2008) at www.bookoflifepodcast.com!
This review has been flagged by multiple users as abuse of the terms of service and is no longer displayed (show).
  bookoflife | May 6, 2008 |
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This fascinating, informative, and beautifully illustrated books translates the Passover seder's Four Questions into twenty-three languages and provides capsule histories of the Jews in the countries where the languages are spoken. The recitation of the Four Questions at the beginning of the Passover seder by the youngest participant is one of the highlights of the evening and captures its very essence: to keep the memory of the Exodus of the Jews from Egyptian slavery alive in our minds, and to teach our children about their heritage and history. This unique volume covers a variety of languages of the Jewish Diaspora—from French to Farsi, from Latin to Ladino, from Amharic to Afrikaans, from Yiddish to Swedish to Chinese. For each language a translation (and, where necessary, a transliteration) of the Four Questions is provided, accompanied by a brief overview of Jewish life and culture among the speakers of the language, and an illustrations of either historical or contemporary interest. The perfect seder gift, Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? is also an excellent introduction to Jewish history in the Diaspora for young and old alike.

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