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This maḥzor (holiday prayer book) contains the festival prayers for the whole year, according to the rite of Carpentras, and was copied in Provence. The Jews of the former papal territory of Comtat…
They heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God called out to…
This Hanukkah lamp from Frankfurt am Main, like the earliest known silver Hanukkah lamps made in Germany, is shaped like a chest and resembles inkwells of the period. This one is relatively…
These four etchings were made by Rembrandt van Rijn for Menasseh Ben Israel’s book, Piedra Gloriosa (Glorious Stone), a messianic treatise. Clockwise from upper left, they illustrate the biblical…
These two lecterns are from Jablonów in the southern part of eastern Galicia and may have graced the town’s wooden synagogue, which was built as early as 1674. Carved from wood, and standing on two…
This magnificent cast-silver Hanukkah lamp, modeled on the ancient menorah, was created in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The legendary Judith stands at the top, surrounded by animals and angels below…
Since the law prohibits one, in no uncertain terms, from depicting figures, the question one may ask is how Jews have had all manner of paintings in their homes? And it is not enough to say that only…
The de Pinto family were wealthy merchant bankers who lived in Amsterdam from the seventeenth century on. In the Iberian Peninsula, members of the family converted to Christianity at the end of the…
Silver amulet typical of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Italian Jewish homes. This example from Venice is unusual in that it contains an unidentified family coat of arms whose main feature is a…
I heard directly from those who say that a text exists which states that the wise and upright R. Solomon wished to spur the end of times and he wanted all to agree with his viewpoint. And he said that…