Showing Results 71 - 80 of 166
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 unusual heart-shaped amulet from Morocco is inscribed with the words “God Almighty,” followed by the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24–26) and an individualized text: “May God give him life and…
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…
This shallow bowl, 5.35 inches (13.6 cm) in diameter, was discovered on the bench at the foot of the sacrificial altar in the Arad sanctuary. It is inscribed with the letter kof followed by a kaf or s…
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…
The angel who talked with me came back and woke me as a man is wakened from sleep. He said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a lamp-stand all of gold, with a bowl above it. The lamps…
The mannerist and baroque Great Synagogue of Tykocin, Poland, was built in 1642. The synagogue was damaged during World War II and in the years following, but was restored in the 1970s, including its…
This seventeenth-century silver repoussé and partly gilt Torah shield from Germany is inlaid with semi-precious stones. In the center of the shield appear the ten commandments in a Hebrew inscription…
This Torah ark curtain was donated to a synagogue in Prague by Leib ben Hezekiah Tausk Nagelstock and his wife Reykhl, daughter of Lemel Lichtenstadt. The composition of the curtain is stylized…
Menasseh ben Joseph ben Israel, seeing the Bomberg types worn out, and since nothing can be imperfect for the Holy Work, arose from within the community and went out, and came to the house of an…