Showing Results 21 - 30 of 251
This copper Torah crown was made in Bolzano, Italy. An excellent repoussé piece, its delicate pierced and traced decorations are adorned with floral arrangements of leaves and vines. The shape of this…
This Torah shield was cast in silver in Hamburg, Germany. Partly gilt and adorned with precious stones, four crowns sit at its center, framed by symmetrical columns on either side that are encircled…
These gilt-silver finials—which bear the Hebrew calendar year of 5502 (1742)—are considered the earliest dated finials from Iraq. On top of each finial is a miniature ḥamsa, a charm in the shape of a…
This Persian carpet, manufactured between 1600 and 1630, was later used for a reader’s desk and desk cover in the Portuguese Synagogue in The Hague, Netherlands.
The text on this inscription, dating from the establishment of the Rema Synagogue in Krákow, reads, in part: “The man, R. Israel ben Joseph (of blessed memory), gathered his strength, for the honor of…
Reb Shmelke:
Well, I can see that you are a clever man, so I will tell you the whole story in brief. [He takes a drink.] As you see me before you, I’m called Reb Smelke [Shmelke, as pronounced by a…
In 1670, Amsterdam’s Portuguese Jewish community commissioned a new synagogue, which, when finished, was the largest in the world. The master mason Elias Bouman, a non-Jew who had helped design the…
The Jewish community of Syria dates back to biblical times. After 1492, the original community was augmented by refugees from Spain and Portugal. The centers of Syrian Jewish life were in the cities…
The Bah (Bayit Hadash) was asked concerning the practice in synagogues of using music which is sung in the houses of worship (of non-Jews). It is only forbidden regarding…
This setting for Psalm 92 is one example of the innovative music composed by Louis Lewandowski, Samuel Naumbourg, and Salomon Sulzer (1804–1890) for the synagogues of the new Reform movement. Their…
