The period before Passover each year marks celebration of Purim, and of the Jewish people’s triumph over the genocidal designs of Haman in ancient Persia; and preparation for Pesach itself, including a review of the freedom-from-Pharaoh’s-slavery-in-ancient-Egypt story in the Haggadah, and, often, purchase of new Haggadot.

Here is a brief look at some of the new Haggadot that are being published in 5786, or were published too late last year for wide distribution (partly reflecting a growing trend of independently published Haggadot with fewer promotion or distribution resources than established publishers):

Haggadah Shel Erev Rav: The Mixed Multitude Haggadah. Central Synagogue/CCAR Press. Art by Siona Benjamin. 112 pps. $25.95.

This is a Haggadah for a feminist, progressive, egalitarian crowd. Produced by Central Synagogue, a prominent Reform congregation in Manhattan, in partnership with the Reform movement’s rabbinical arm, it features the sometimes-truncated text in Hebrew and English and transliteration; commentaries by members of the synagogue’s rabbinical staff; explanations of the Haggadah’s readings and rituals, and the evocative full-color drawings by Indian Jewish artist Siona Benjamin.

The Haggadah’s title refers to the “mixed multitude” of non-Jewish Egyptians who accompanied Bnei Israel out of Egypt – and often are referenced by the Sages as a group of individuals who had a deleterious effect on the actions and spiritual level of the Jewish people. This Haggadah gives the erev rav a more-welcoming, more-positive spin.

The Haggadah, which marks the 20th anniversary of Rabbi Angela Buchdahl as the synagogue’s spiritual leader, is geared to the needs and sensitivities of an ethnically- and racially-diverse readership, reflecting her congregation’s composition, Rabbi Buchdahl, the first Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi, and as a cantor in the US, writes in the preface. She cites, with praise, the ethnic composition of the Jewish people, which includes Sephardim and Ashkenazim, LGBT individuals, Jews of color and Jews-by-choice, and “the full inclusion of women.”

“That multiplicity is not a modern invention – it has been with us since the exodus itself,” the rabbi writes, explaining the Haggadah’s focus. “From our very beginning as Am Yisrael, we were not a monolith but a mosaic. This new Haggadah … celebrates that sacred multivocality.”

The translations were handled by Rabbi Janet Marder, rabbi emerita of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, CA, and Rabbi Sheldon Marder, department head of Jewish Life at the Jewish Home of San Francisco; the editing was done by Rabbi Sarah Berman, director of Jewish culture and programming at Central Synagogue.264

Star Trek: The Exodus Directive: The Hagaddah that Takes Us Where No Matzah Has Gone Before. Rivka Bresler. Independently published. 168 pps. $15.99.

The original 5-year mission of the starship Enterprise to explore new worlds and new civilizations has lasted six decades, spawning a series of TV shows, movies, novels and other expressions of popular culture.

Star Trek has reached the Jewish world. Though Star Trek has no clear Jewish roots (despite the ethnic background of many of its star actors, its producers, and the Vulcan greeting patterned after the blessing-bestowing Kohanim), the Star Trek message of inclusivity has over the years been the subject of many rabbis’ essays and sermons.

Bresler, an Orthodox day school teacher in Baltimore (at Beth Tfiloh Congregation, which she had attended), and self-declared Star Trek aficionado, finds many parallels between the themes of the seder and those of the sci-fi franchise’s many iterations. For instance, “oppression and liberation, memory and destiny, sacrifice and leadership, identity and renewal.” She has found inspiration in the many Star Trek TV shows and movies that have followed the premiere of the original series – TOS to devoted fans — in 1966.

“Each part of the Seder, from Kadesh to Nirtzah, serves as a waypoint in our voyage through memory and meaning … as we recline, dip, question, sing, and eat, we do what every Star Trek crew does – honor the past, confront the present, and imagine a better future,” she writes in the Haggadah’s introduction. “Much like the captain’s log at the beginning of every Star Trek episode, the Seder gives our journey context, purpose, and direction … Let all who are hungry come and eat. Resistance is futile.”

“I love Star Trek,” she writes in the introduction. “And I love Pesach.” She watched Star Trek, “The Next........

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