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This black stone seal, from the City of David in Jerusalem, depicts two bearded men with their hands raised in a gesture of worship, flanking an altar or pedestal. The crescents on the altar or…
The use of wall niches for Torah scrolls was a feature of some of the earliest synagogues and continues today in Mizrahi communities. This striking faience-tile mosaic structure would have decorated a…
In 1827, Tsar Nicholas I issued a statute that effectively made Russian Jews liable to military service, as part of a policy that sought to transform the Jewish population into integrated subjects who…
They buried her into the darkness itself. As Miko was leaving the cemetery an old Jew took him by the hand. The man called out to his wife from the door: “I’ve brought him home . . . I couldn’t…
This shadai’a (dedicatory plaque) from the Romaniote community in Ioannina, Greece, is made of repoussé silver with an engraved Hebrew inscription. The central inscription is a rhymed text dedicated…
Kabbalists prayed using the basic Jewish prayers, but added certain elements according to their own tradition. The prayers are often presented with kavanot (special devotional forms, meanings, and…
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…
This remarkable illustration is at the same time a shiviti—traditionally, a decorative plaque bearing the verse: “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence”—and a topographic map of the land of Israel…
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart’s secret places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honors sake, to stop its beating.
Blessed is the…
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…
