Artist’s seven-year labour of love brings seder to life

When Leon Fenster sits down at the seder table next week he will be opening up a very special Haggadah. For it has been designed, created and executed by him and is the result of a seven-year project. Much has changed in the world since he began this journey but he has remained focussed on the end result and is quietly excited to share it.

The artist behind JW3’s nine-storey London Jewish Mural was living in Beijing when a close fried of his who had been a pillar of the Jewish community there died. The family wanted to do something in his memory and Leon hit upon the idea of creating a Beijing Haggadah for the small community, weaving the history and culture of the city into it.

Leon then moved to Taiwan and saw that once again there was a small expat community and within that a little Jewish community. “We were all really close, like a real family,” he says. “And I thought it would be great if we could have our own Haggadah that really feels like it’s meant for us. Not everyone can have a Haggadah for their own family, but we could all have them for our own cities, perhaps.”

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The brainchild of a new project had been born but then he decided upon something more far-reaching. The Belsize Park-based artist, 39, says: “I have always had a strong sense that the seder has all the ingredients to be a great adventure. And I wanted to make a Haggadah that feels like an adventure to read. This is the Haggadah that I’ve always wanted to make.”

Haggadah, A Living Tapestry is a visually stunning book bursting with kaleidoscopic art, text and ideas, bringing the stories of the seder to life with detailed illustrations of cities and historical events. From a Broadway-style version of Dayeinu to astronauts and cosmonauts holding a seder in space, Leon has drawn inspiration from his journeys through Jewish communities in Beijing, Mexico City and New York. “Every time you turn the page, it’s a window into another world,” he says.

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The thing that you notice first is the use of deep, strong colours, and the many characters drawn in Leon’s signature cartoon-like style. One of my favourite elements is the imagining of 70 characters from Jewish history walking though the parted Red Sea, from Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Mrs. Maisel to Albert Einstein and Mark Zuckerberg. Another fascinating section is ‘Forced Fashion’, showing the many things Jews have been ordered to wear over the centuries, including ‘Judenhats’ in 14th century Germany and yellow armbands in 20th century occupied Europe. Best of all, every single Hebrew word is not only translated into English but also printed in phonetics.

When Leon was 13 he was given a copy of the David Moss Haggadah, described by Rabbi Irving Greenberg in his book The Jewish Way as “A magnificent work of art, possibly the most beautiful Haggadah of all time”. Leon was always inspired by this book and it was the benchmark for his own ‘work of art’ Haggadah.

As a child at Rosh Pinah school, Leon was always getting into trouble for drawing when he was supposed to be listening. He was clearly paying enough attention to be awarded a place at City of London School, after which he studied architecture, wanting to do something with his art that that was physical and practical.

He worked as an architect for three years and then started creating artworks of fantasy architectures, including a project looking a style of Jewish architecture for a synagogue building. “A gallery owner saw a bunch of these artworks and wanted to exhibit them. That went really well. And I thought, Oh, I could just do this. This is great.”

Currently the Haggadah can be bought through Leon’s website and mailed, or to guarantee you get it by seder night, collected from Totteridge or Edgware. Things will ramp up next year with a global book tour to launch it worldwide.

“I wanted to make a Haggadah that really works for all ages,” says Leon. “So I created it with adults in mind, with illustrations and typography with meanings that I want adults to dive into. But visually it’s so crammed full of little delights that children will enjoy it equally. It’s like a Where’s Wally, finding things for others.”

Leon has been commissioned by the Mexico Ashkenazi Jewish community and done a lot of work with different Asian communities. On a smaller scale he has done family pieces where he interviews a family, learns all about their life, and then creates one artwork that contains their entire life story. He’s also placed illustrations of the story of a couple around the text on their Ketubah. Then there’s the as yet unseen artwork which tells the global story of the pandemic and the shared memories that emerged from that.

“The philosophy behind the JW3 mural was to cram the entire world into one artwork,” he says. “And it’s kind of same with this Haggadah. It’s like the whole world of Pesach crammed into one book. My advice is to look through it before Pesach, and find ideas you like in there. And then when you come to the seder, you can bring those out.”

Haggadah, A Living Tapestry costs £27 and can be bought from leonfenster.com