It came to my attention this Passover that old German Haggadahs (books used at the Passover ceremonial meal) often featured an illustration of a rabbit hunt, or of just a rabbit, to serve as a reminder of the order of the blessings in the Havdala ceremony at that meal. A rabbit hunt was used because in German, "jag da has" or "hunt the rabbit" sounds the same as the mnemonic acronym for the order of the blessings. You can read about it more in detail here.
If a Haggadah were printed nowadays with pictures of rabbits on its pages, it would immediately be assumed that rabbits were somehow related to the rabbits of Easter (which typically coincides with Passover) and the publisher is somehow a Christian missionary organization etc....
My question is: Did the association of rabbits with Easter begin after these Haggadahs were published and did it perhaps have something to do with association of rabbits to Passover?
I know it sounds far-fetched but the coincidence is too blatant to ignore completely.