Portrait of Jacob Ries

Drawing of a wooden synagogue from Maximilian Syrkin’s 1910 article, “Drevníya derevyannyye sinagogi v pol’she litve” (Wooden Synagogues in Polish Lithuania). Wooden synagogues were a common form of…

Fromet Guggenheim (1737–1812) was the eldest daughter of a merchant from Hamburg. She married the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn in 1762. Exceptional for the time, theirs was not an arranged marriage…

This Sabbath lamp, cast in silver in Frankfurt am Main, was originally commissioned for a private home. It was made by Johann Valentin Schüler, a craftsman who also produced many other Jewish ritual…