Arnold Levin Haggadah Collection

Arnold Levin was born in Philadelphia in 1930 and lived there until his death in April, 2006. He dearly loved his family and was married to his wife Shirley for fifty-four and a half years. They had three children and nine grandchildren. There was a very close relationship with all of them. Arnold went to Temple University and was an auditor with the government for thirty-seven years. He was also a tax accountant until his death. Arnold was involved in many communal activities. He was a life member of the board at Temple Sinai in Dresher, PA. He was also a past president of the Temple Sinai Men’s Club and a past president of the Middle Atlantic region of Men’s Clubs. For many years Arnold served as treasurer of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs. Arnold was treasurer of the Cardozo Lodge Credit Union for about twenty-five years. He also served as treasurer of the Jewish Archives. He was a born leader and gave his all to any organization that he belonged to. They are too numerous to mention them all.

Arnold loved Judaism and loved books. When his father passed away in the early 1970’s, Arnold received a few of the Haggadot that his father had and this sparked an intense interest in the Haggadah. He started collecting a few Haggadot and gradually his interest became an intense passion. Our travels centered on wherever there were Jewish book stores. We traveled to Curacao, England, France, Holland and quite a few other countries just to find Haggadot. Of course, we went to Israel many times and invariably ended up in every Jewish book store that we could find. We also went to Borough Park in New York just before Passover every year and came home with a car-full of new Haggadot. He also started going to auctions and contacting many of the auctioneers that were involved with Judaica. Arnold became involved with other Haggadah collectors and they corresponded with each other to see what they could barter. There basically was correspondence from around the world. Arnold delighted in adding unusual Haggadot to his collection.

He started exhibiting his collection in various synagogues and loved to speak about them. People started calling him and gave him interesting Haggadot that they had collected. A few years ago one of the Philadelphia synagogues was closing and gave him a veritable treasure of old Haggadot. The synagogue members were mostly Holocaust survivors and they had Haggadot from Singapore and then from their first Passover in the US. He also was in touch with people from South Africa and got several books from there. We had Haggadot from many kibbutzim and from the Israeli and the US armed services.

Arnold kept wonderful records until he came down with lung cancer in 1998. He was a miracle in the world of oncology and he lived a productive life for the next seven and a half years despite chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. He defied all of the odds and according to his doctors, he was one of the bravest men they ever knew. Arnold decided that he wanted to give his Haggadot to the University of Pennsylvania Judaica Library and contacted them before his death. I hope that students, professors and all interested people will get at least some of the joy that he derived from his wonderful collection.

-Shirley Levin & Family