Carpet Depicting Rachel’s Tomb

Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts

1920–1929

Textile with central panel of building with domed roof, side panels of candelabra, and border of Stars of David.
This carpet was one of the many decorative objects with biblical themes produced at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. This design features the legendary burial site of the biblical matriarch Rachel, as the Hebrew in the upper border makes clear. The central picture is flanked by seven-branched menorahs. The one on the left is labeled “Jerusalem” and the one on the right, “Marvadiah, Land of Israel,” the name of the workshop affiliated with Bezalel. The stylized Stars of David framing the picture repeat the word “Zion.” The Hebrew inscription below is from Jeremiah 31:15: “A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children.”

Credits

Courtesy of Spertus Institute, Chicago.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 8.

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Creator Bio

Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts

The Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts was established in Jerusalem in 1906 by the artist Boris Schatz with the support of the Zionist movement. It promoted the creation of a Jewish national art, one that would blend European and Middle Eastern artistic traditions. Its distinctive style drew on the contemporary arts and crafts movement in Europe and the United States and the Jugendstil movement in Central Europe.

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