the rest is commentary; now go and study

Marriage Dress, Michael Berkowitz, 2000

Originally designed as a wedding dress for Berkowitz's wife, the costume is made from white bridal satin. Fabrication of the garment was delaying the marriage, so it was never actually worn for that event.

More photographs from the Salgótarjáni Street Jewish Cemetery, which celebrated it's 150 anniversary last year. The cemetery is located close to downtown Budapest, but unfortunately is in ruined conditions, without prospects to being renovated or cleaned in the future. However in it's overgrown state, the cemetery still has a unique athmosphere.

Rabbi Avichail's photos from his visit to the Abayudaya Jewish community, Uganda 1994

The Tzedek ve-Shalom Synagogue, at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Paramaribo, Suriname, 1736

Permanent loan from the Jewish Community of Suriname

Founded in Paramaribo, the capital city of Suriname, in 1736, the Tzedek ve-Shalom synagogue is a typical example of Spanish and Portuguese synagogues in the New World. The republic of Suriname - formerly known as Dutch Guiana - is a tropical country situated on the northern coast of South America, just above Brazil.

In the mid-17th century Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin, who had fled to Holland during the Inquisition, were among the early European settlers in Suriname. They established sugarcane plantations along the Suriname River, to which they gave biblical names, and founded a village in the Savanna, which they called “Jerusalem on the Riverside.” Also referred to as the Jewish Savanna, it became the centre of this remote colony until the middle of the 18th century, when most of the Jews moved to Paramaribo.

Formerly situated in the middle of a large courtyard, the Tzedek ve-Shalom synagogue is a neoclassical wooden building, rectangular in shape and painted white. Flanked by three arched windows, the central entrance leads to a wide basilica-like hall whose salient features are typical of the Spanish and Portuguese tradition: The tevah is located opposite the Torah ark (heikhal); the benches for the congregants run along the walls, facing the centre, and among them are more prominent benches dedicated to the leaders of the community (parnassim) and the head of the community; and majestic brass chandeliers of Dutch manufacture, inscribed with the names of the donors who offered them to the synagogue, hang from the ceiling and between the colonnades. Allied with these features are others which are characteristic of the local, regional architecture, such as the plain, symmetrical structure; the white walls and large windows that invite the sunlight. The sand-coated floor is found in several other Spanish and Portuguese synagogues.

Monument in memory of the Jews who were killed in the Farhud which took place in Iraq.  The monument is located in Ramat Gan, Israel; 2010. x

On this day in history, June 1st and 2nd in 1941, the Farhud, a pogrom, took place across Iraq and claimed the lives of over 700 Jewish people with more than a thousand injured.  The Farhud began because of a failed coup from Nazi sympathizing Officers in the Iraqi army.  Nazi Germany had also worked with Arab Nationalists and, through them, spread antisemitic propaganda through both Radio Berlin and local radio stations.  The failed coup, suspected Jewish collusion with British authorities [see antisemitic ‘duel loyalty’ trope], and antisemitic propaganda all mixed to create an explosion of violence against Iraq’s Jewish population - which by 1941 was over 150,000 strong.  The Iraqi Jewish community would all but end with Saddam’s rise to power, as the central government put restrictions on the life of Iraq’s Jewish population starting in 1948. Operation Ezra & Nehemia airlifted 120,000 Iraqi Jews out of the country in 1948 and brought them to Israel.