“Perhaps The Oldest Piece of Ecclesiastical Furniture in this Country”: The Construction and Destruction of Solomon Schechter’s Cairo Genizah Torah Ark

Abstract

In 1897, Solomon Schechter brought a hoard of Hebrew manuscripts, now known collectively as the Cairo Genizah, to England from Cairo. Along with these manuscripts were several wooden Hebrew inscription fragments from Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue. When Schechter left Cambridge to assume the presidency of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, these fragments were brought to New York where they were transformed into a Torah Ark. This Torah ark was used at the Seminary for three decades and subsequently exhibited at the Jewish Museum, New York and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was featured on numerous postcards and in major works on Jewish art. In 1997, it was deconstructed by the Jewish Museum to extract the medieval inscriptions. This article explores the history, meaning and reception of the Schechter Torah Ark as a window into the complexities of Schechter’s legacy and the history of Jewish scholarship in the twentieth century.