The Haggadah Illustrated by Hannah Getzler and the tragic end of the illustrator

In 1953, a beautiful Haggadah was published in Tel Aviv, illustrated and written by H. Getzler. Looking at the title page below, you can see that the writer and Illustrator are described as ציורים וכתב חץ גצלר, using the masculine וכתב and not וכתבה. The author and illustrator was in fact a woman, Hannah Getzler. She hid the fact that it was a woman writing, so that Haredi Jews would not refrain from purchasing the Haggadah.


Here is an article about the Haggadah, from מעריב, 30 במרץ 1953. Notice her strong emphasis on her family, children and wish for a large family.

Just 6 years later, in April 1959, her husband, Yehuda Getzler, at age 52, after getting himself into heavy debt, killed his wife, Hannah, and 3 of their four children and then committed suicide,  in one of the most horrific murder-suicides in the history of Israel. Their youngest son, Yuval, survived, after the bullet intended for him, missed it's target. Below are some photographs of the Haggadah. May the Haggadah live as her memory.








See here for the Maariv article at the time of their murder.