A few years ago, pictures circulated of the annual White House seder showing then-President Barack Obama holding a Maxwell House Haggadah, a text familiar to countless American Jews. The coffee company began publishing and distributing this no-frills Hebrew-English Haggadah in 1932, when a Jewish marketing agency explained that doing so would help convince kosher consumers that rabbinic consensus did not consider coffee a form of kitniyot—foods such as beans that are prohibited on Passover by post-talmudic custom. Last year, Maxwell House produced some half-million Haggadot, making it the country’s largest publisher of Judaica. Elie Rosenfeld, in conversation with Nachi Weinstein, explains how this came to pass, the quest for the author of the original translation, and much else. (Audio, 48 minutes.)
Read more on Seforim Chatter: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/with-elie-rosenfeld-discussing-the-maxwell-house-haggadah/id1523682676?i=1000556873317