SOUTH ORANGE – This year, will you be leading a seder for the first time? There’s an app for that.

Entries in the annual stream of new haggadot this year include a Reform version that comes in hardcover, paperback, and iPad app editions. Two others feature a gorgeously designed haggadah that features an array of literary celebrity contributors, and one with an Ethiopian flavor.

The Reform haggadah, “Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family” (CCAR Press), is terrific for its introductions and artwork, bland in its content, and promising in its use of technology.

BOSTON – A vacuum-like robot that cleans the house and a spunky Israeli girl on an underground adventure in Jerusalem are among the characters featured in new children’s books for Passover.

This year’s crop offers more than the typical retellings of the Exodus story. Two books have Passover as a backdrop for entertaining and imaginative storytelling that can spark conversation about the popular holiday’s many rituals and traditions. One retells an Afghani folk tale that gives families a chance to discover Jewish life in an unfamiliar part of the world. A lift-the-flap format book is aimed at the younger crowd.

Here’ a look at this year’s Passover book offerings for kids:

When David and Batsheva Miller left Israel for California in 1994, they sorely missed Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and their community at the moshav, or Israeli settlement, the singer-spiritualist founded.

Nothing, even in Berkeley, compared to Shabbat on the moshav, Meor Modi’in. So they created gatherings at their home, enlivening them with Carlebach melodies — what Miller calls “nusach Shlomo.”

“It was a landing pad for people coming back from Israel, including us, who were in shock at the wilderness we encountered,” Miller said. “Equally important, it was a blastoff for many people powering up to go to Israel.”

For Neshama Carlebach, the fact that Carlebach-style minyanim continue to thrive nearly 20 years after the death of her singer-songwriter father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, serves as both testament and celebration of his life’s work.

“My father allowed people to connect with God and each other through music and song,” says the 37-year-old singer and actress, who launched her own career at the age of 15, shortly after the prolific Jewish song composer’s passing in 1994. “His style of minyan and prayer still serve as a catalyst, a vessel, through which people become self-aware and connect to their Judaism.”

LOS ANGELES – With his yarmulke, ritual fringes, and lyrics occasionally borrowed from ancient texts, Grammy-nominated reggae star Matisyahu may be the most publicly Jewish performer in the mainstream music scene. He is not the only one, however.

Growing ranks of Shabbat- and ritually observant performers are finding success on the national stage. Located on both coasts, these independent artists share more with Matisyahu than keeping the Shabbat. They, too, are attracting audiences with compositions informed by their spiritual lives: building connection, meaning, and hope.

The following is an edited version of President Barack Obama’s speech delivered on Sunday to the 2012 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.

Four years ago, I stood before you and said…, “Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable.” That belief has guided my actions as president….[M]y administration’s commitment to Israel’s security has been unprecedented. Our military and intelligence cooperation has never been closer. Our joint exercises and training have never been more robust. Despite a tough budget environment, our security assistance has increased every single year. We are investing in new capabilities. We’re providing Israel with more advanced technology — the types of products and systems that only go to our closest friends and allies.

The following is an edited version of the speech delivered on Monday evening by Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to this week’s 2012 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.

Every day, I open the newspapers and read about these red lines and these timelines. I read about what Israel has supposedly decided to do, or what Israel might do....I’m not going to talk to you about what Israel will do or will not do; I never talk about that. But I do want to talk to you about the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran.

I want to explain why Iran must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The following is an edited version of the speech delivered on Sunday by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, to this week’s 2012 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.

I stand here, before you, a hopeful man — poud to be Jewish, proud to be Israeli, proud to be there at the birth of Israel, proud to have served it for 65 years, proud of our alliance with the United States. Israel, like America, was conceived as an idea; born in defiance of history; creating a new world by drawing on the values of the past and the innovations of the future….

Fate placed me in the eye of the storm. I was 11 years old when my beloved grandfather, Rabbi Tzvi Melzer, accompanied me to the train station on my way to Israel. He hugged me and whispered in my ear only three words, “Shimon…stay Jewish.” Those were his last words to me. I never saw him again.