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This image depicts the interior of the synagogue that served the Beth Israel congregation in Amsterdam. Before 1639, there were three Sephardic congregations in Amsterdam: Beth Jacob (founded possibly…
This bronze medal by Jacques Elion commemorates the opening of a Jewish orphanage in Amsterdam. The Hebrew inscription reads: “Orphanage.” It was customary for Jewish communities to issue medals to…
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…
The only image of the interior of the first synagogue of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, a congregation established in Charleston in 1749, is this picture, painted from memory by Solomon Nunes Carvalho. The…
This Torah curtain was made in Ankara, Turkey. The motifs of a central menorah and hands making the priestly blessing were common in other Ottoman Jewish ritual folk art. Embroidered verses from the…
In 1840, thirteen leaders of the Jewish community in Damascus were arrested and imprisoned because of an accusation of ritual murder. Appeals from the local Jewish community reached Jewish communities…
This kiddush cup and wine carafe by the master glass engraver Daniel Henriques de Castro displays his delicate technique, known as stippling. Though it is most common for kiddush cups, used for the…
When the company owned by Jacob Abraham Jesurun (1806–1875) obtained a contract for mail delivery within the Caribbean in 1867, it had its own stamps printed featuring the firm’s initials, J. A. J. &…
This Torah ark curtain from Gördes, Turkey, features an archway flanked on either side with double columns and a hanging lamp, a motif common to both Islamic prayer rugs and mats and Ottoman Torah ark…
The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, is home to the second-oldest congregation in the United States. As Sephardic Jews began emigrating from the Caribbean to colonial America in the…
