Hanukkiah (Hanukkah Lamp) Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts Silver Jerusalem, 1915 Gift of Joseph B. and Olyn Horwitz Hanukkah, a joyous winter holiday, commemorates the military victory in 165 BCE of a small number of Jews, led by Judah Maccabee, over the oppressive ruling Syrian-Greek government, which had commanded the Jews to worship [...]
Jood Badge Cloth Bergen Belsen, 1944 Gift of Werner Weinberg Estate Werner Weinberg (1915-1997), a former faculty member at Cincinnati’s HUC-JIR Campus, was born on May 30, 1915 in Rheda, Germany. Werner graduated from the Jewish Teachers Seminary in Wurzburg in 1936 and accepted a position in Hanover at a Jewish elementary school and [...]
Riverfront Josef Warkany (1902-1992) Etching Cincinnati, OH, c. 1990 Gift of Steve F. Warkany Josef Warkany is generally remembered for his work in medicine, not his artistic ability. His is called the father of teratology, which is the scientific study of congenital abnormalities and abnormal formations. He is renowned for his work in prenatal [...]
Sukkah Plaque Hand-colored woodcut Germany, 18th C. The High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are followed a week later by a weeklong harvest festival, called Sukkot or “booths.” Sukkot not only reflects joy in the physical bounty of God’s creation, but also reminds Jews [...]
Stamp for Marking Kosher Meat Wood and brass Italy, 19th century Gift of Joseph B. and Olyn Horwitz B'nai B'rith Klutznick Collection of the Skirball Museum This rare stamp was used to indicate that meat was judged Kosher. A blue or purple food-safe dye would have been used to stamp this mark directly onto [...]
Elijah Cup Ori Resheff (b. 1955) Silver and gilt Israel, 1993 Gift of Judith and Clarence Lapedes, Maureen Lynch, and Richard Lapedes to honor Ted Schwartz z”l on his significant birthday Cincinnati Skirball Museum Spring brings with it one of the major Jewish spring festivals, Pesach, or Passover, a seven day festival which marks [...]
Le Mere et l’Enfant (Mother and Child) Reuven Rubin (1893-1974) Lithograph Israel, 1960 Gift of Harry F. Hemmerich to the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum Romanian-born Rubin Zelicovici had a dream when he first set foot in Ottoman Palestine in 1912. His dream was to be an artist in Israel, to create an [...]
Absalom Gerald Wartofsky (b. 1935) Oil on canvas United States, 1993 B’nai B’rith Klutznick Collection of the Skirball Museum Gerald Wartofsky studied in Washington, DC and in New York, pursuing a method to assimilate the dualistic nature of classical and expressionistic approaches to his artmaking. He finds inspiration in literature, music and dance. His [...]
Menorah Samuel Bak (b. 1933) Serigraph United States, ca. 1997 Gift of Mike and Toby Chernin B’nai B’rith Klutznick Collection of the Skirball Museum Samuel Bak survived the destruction of the Vilna ghetto and immigrated with his mother to Jerusalem in 1948, where he studied at the Bezalel School of Art and Design. After [...]
Shemini Azeret and Simchat Torah Stained glass window Cincinnati, OH, Adath Israel Congregation (1927—1964) Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Alter Peerless. The fall season brings with it a number of Jewish holidays and festivals, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the most solemn days of the religious year. The High Holy Days are followed closely by Sukkot, a [...]
