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Shevat 26, 5770 / February 10, '10  
Missionary Haggadah: Beware!
Missionary Haggadah: Beware!
Israel News Photo: (courtesy of Outreach Juda 
 
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Published: 03/19/09, 1:02 PM

Bookseller Responds to Buyer Anger over Missionary Haggadah

 
by Hana Levi Julian
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(IsraelNN.com) A campaign to persuade major booksellers to move missionary-generated holiday Passover Haggadahs off the "Judaism" shelves has won the first round.

The Jewish anti-missionary organization Outreach Judaism raised the alarm about Passover Family Pack: Everything You Need to Enjoy a Passover Seder Dinner earlier this week, warning Jews the so-called Haggadah was really a Christian text.

Rabbi Tovia Singer, director of Outreach Judaism, called on Jews who unsuspectingly purchased the book to return it at the point of sale, and to lobby the bookstores and corporations to remove the tome from the "Judaism" section of the shelves. Singer also called on people to sign an online petition to ban the misleading holiday guide.

One customer, irate at being misled, responded by firing off a letter to mega-bookstore Barnes and Noble, a copy of which he sent to Israel National News.

In the letter the customer quoted the online petition against the Haggadah, complaining that the "innocent-sounding book title… departs from thousands of years of Jewish tradition and introduces concepts associated with the Christian deity into the traditional Passover Seder service. This counters the basic tenets of Judaism, according to Jewish denominations across the board."

He called on the U.S.-based corporation to "exercise responsibility to the public and remove this missionary Hagaddah from the Passover and Judaism sections in your online and conventional bookstores, and accurately label it 'Christian.'"

In a courteous response, the Barnes and Noble Customer Service Department assured the customer that the mistake would be rectified:

"Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention. We will make the necessary change to our website within the next 24 hours and categorize this title under Christianity. We apologize for the error."

Singer called on the public to continue to send emails to Amazon.com and to Wal-Mart and other book outlets where the misleading missionary material may be sold.

For Amazon.com,  click on "help" in the upper right corner of the page. Click on the yellow "Contact us" tab in the right column. Then click on "Skip sign in" at the bottom of the box.

For Wal-Mart simply follow the customer service links to provide feedback.



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