The scribe and illustrator Joseph ben David came from Leipnik, in northeastern Moravia (now the Czech Republic) and lived in Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Altona, and Hamburg. In the eighteenth century, Hebrew manuscript illustration experienced a revival in Germany and Central Europe. While he was neither the most prolific nor the most skilled artist of his time, Leipnik became a famous and influential scribe and illuminator, introducing new themes and using color in innovative ways. Fifteen of his manuscripts (one illustrated by another artist) have survived, dated between 1730 and 1740, among them fourteen Haggadahs. Some information about his life, including his patrons, can be gleaned from the colophons he added to his manuscripts. He probably supplemented his income by teaching children of rich families.
This page from a Haggadah produced in Amsterdam is an example of the work of Joseph Ben David Leipnik, a prominent eighteenth-century scribe and artist known particularly for his illustrated Haggadahs…
Likute Yosef (The Compilation of Joseph), a commentary on prayers, is an important source of information about the Jewish religious culture of Worms, Germany, one of the oldest and most important…
And now Blimele, dear child,
Stop—stop playing now.
No time for that.
We can be called at any minute
To leave our poor home
—A lonely boat on an island of sand—
And be hurled into the midst
Of a…