Torah Pointers (Ukraine)

Shpanyer-arbet (spun work) was the name for a type of decorative gold and silver lace that adorned yarmulkes, prayer shawls, and other Jewish ritual garments in Eastern Europe. It was woven on a…

This mizraḥ (an ornamental wall plaque used to indicate the direction of Jerusalem) includes a map of the land of Israel surrounded by sacred sites and vistas. These elaborate mizraḥ sheets were often…

This lithograph portrays great figures from Jewish history whose first names are Moses. Clockwise from the center: the biblical Moses (evoking Michelangelo’s famous sculpture), Moses Mendelssohn, Baro…

This impressive cut-paper birth amulet is in the form of the double eagle, the symbol of the Habsburg Monarchy (and pre-partition Poland) and thus a popular motif in Galician Jewish folk art. It is…

This is a printed amulet from Tunis, containing texts and symbols commonly used on such talismans printed in North Africa. However, this example is somewhat unusual, as it combines two traditional…

Shmuel Schulman’s micrograph is a tribute to Ḥoveve Zion, members of a nineteenth-century Zionist movement that sent pioneers to Palestine to develop settlements funded by Baron Edmond James de…