Yeshiva University Museum (NYC)

Collection item of the week:  early 20th century souvenir textile depicting Rachel's tomb.

Collection item of the week: Rosh Hashanah greeting card, featuring a textile pattern designed by Lotte Frömel-Fochler for the Wiener Werkstätte, Austria, c. 1910. Greetings in Hebrew and German.

Collection items of the week:  two very different 20th century watercolor depictions of heder.  Samuel Rothbort’s (1882-1971) horrified teacher finds his class drawing portraits of him.  Albert Dov Sigal’s (1912-1970) teacher smilingly interacts with his studious young charges.

Collection items of the week: 19th century wedding dresses from Gallipoli (left), Morocco (center), and New York City (right)

Collection item of the week: evocation of Jews in Hungary by Orit Hofshi, woodcut on handmade paper, gift of Martin Peretz

Collection item of the week: Carpet Vendor, painting by Moshe Matus, Israel, n.d., Gift of Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff.  Can you find the man’s  face? Would this be considered non PC today?

Collection item of the week: Herod's Temple Mount in Jerusalem. York Model Making and Display Ltd. Created for Benjamin Adelman; Leen Rittmeyer consultant, Gift of Saul Adelman

Collection item of the week: doll by Ali, Israel ca. 1950, gift of David Michaels

Collection item of the week: Samson and Delilah, watercolor by Albert Dov Sigal (1912-1970)

Babushka, gouache by Leon Sherker (1897-1963), New York, 1956

Collection item of the week: The Battle of Bunker Hill from the series Washington and his Times by Arthur Szyk, Vienna, 1932.

This was sewn on the striped uniform of Rudolf (Rudi) Jacobson who was interned at Buchenwald from August 1944 to the liberation of the camp on 4/11/1945

Collection item of the week:  Black Wedding, a painting by Samuel Rothbort (1882-1971) probably based on memories of his early years in Wolkowisk (Belarus).  This illustrates an Eastern European folk tradition of marrying two people in a cemetery to ward off an epidemic.  

Collection item of the week: a charming Victorian printing sample showing a boy and girl playing with a cat and her kittens.  It was produced by the Steam Printing Office of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Industrial School New York, 1881. The Steam Printing Office  of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was located at 187 and 189 East 76th Street in New York City.

This is one of a group of fundraising poster stamps issued by the Council Against Intolerance in 1944. The Council’s goal as set forth in a fundraising letter dated September 1944 was to promote unity among Americans, to educate them to avoid prejudice and bigotry, and  “… to defend our children from racial and religious hatred.” Other stamps featured Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

For Shavuot, I am sharing this sculpture from our collection: Homage to the State of Israel by Oliver O’Connor Barrett (1908-1989), New York, 1958, Walnut. You know that Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah, but did you know it is also the traditional yahrzeit of King David?

Collection item of the week:  photograph of Harry Newburg and friends at Coney Island, New York, 1930s.  Imagine what effect social distancing would  have on this image today.