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By the 1920s, Montparnasse artist Chana Orloff was a popular portrait sculptor. Showing the influences of cubism and classical and “primitive” art, her flowing, smooth-surfaced sculptures in wood or…
This Torah shield contains a rare example of a personal inscription by the silversmith, stating: “This is the work of my hands in which I take pride, Ze’ev ben Abraham [?], silversmith from Piotrków…
This wedding riddle from Italy is written in Hebrew and Judeo-Italian. Wedding songs, sometimes performed by professional jesters, were traditional at Jewish weddings. Some had lyrics in the form of…
Benjamin S. Judah (1761–1831) was an influential businessman in New York City and Philadelphia who built his wealth on shipping contracts to and from the West Indies. Judah was bankrupted when Great…
This cup and saucer set features a portrait of Jewish German banker Isaac Daniel Itzig and a picture of one of his homes in Berlin, the Bartholdy Meierei (Bartholdi dairy) on Köpenickerstrasse…
Before the priestly blessing is recited in the synagogue, those making the blessing ritually wash their hands. It is also customary for Jews to wash their hands before entering a synagogue for worship…
Paper cuts have been a tradition of Jewish folk art, with the earliest record of one dating to the fourteenth century. Given the widespread availability of paper in Europe by the mid-nineteenth…
Fanny Hensel (1805–1847), the granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and financier Daniel Itzig, and sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, was born in Hamburg into a wealthy…
Joseph ben Issachar Süsskind Oppenheimer was a financier and court Jew who served as adviser to Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg. Economic reforms enacted by Karl Alexander (and informed by…
This Torah mantle, from about 1655, is embroidered with silk and gilt-silver thread and is richly decorated with curling, interlocking patterns. The crown dates from the middle of the nineteenth…
