{"title":"The Monumental Torah Shrine of the Ostia Synagogue: New Evidence from the UT-OSMAP Excavations","authors":"L. M. White","doi":"10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The ancient Jewish synagogue of Ostia (Italy) was first discovered in 1961 and excavated hastily over the next few years (1961–1964). While the discovery prompted considerable attention, full excavation and reports were not completed. Since 2001, the Ostia Synagogue Masonry, Mapping and Archaeology Project (OSMAP), directed by Professor L. Michael White of the University of Texas under the auspices of the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Soprintendenza of Ostia (now Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica), has conducted six full seasons of new excavations and ten full seasons of laboratory study and analysis of the material remains, including several thousand “rediscovered” objects from the 1960s excavations. The results are now being published, and the picture that we get of this complex and its community is nothing short of spectacular. This article summarizes two sets of key findings that have emerged from our archival research and new excavations: we begin with a thoroughly revised chronology and phasing of the synagogue complex. The bulk of the article then focuses on our new findings regarding the architectural form and decoration of the Torah shrine in its Final Phase (after ca. 465 CE). Given its late date and monumental scale, the architectural design and ornate decoration of the Torah shrine represents a truly remarkable accomplishment by the Jewish community of Ostia.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"37 1","pages":"1 - 43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73177133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Horb Synagogue: Retracing Roots","authors":"Zvi Orgad","doi":"10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.8","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Only a portion of the interior paintings of the prayer room from Horb am Main survive, and they are now exhibited in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The exhibition offers little information regarding the room’s original location and its missing parts. Based on new findings – the location of the original site and newly published photographs taken in situ before the dismantling of the prayer room – this article provides information about the original location of the Horb prayer room within the building, and the missing interior wall structure and decorations. The linking of the architectural and decorative aspects to the original location sheds light on the creation and perception of visual art in a small pre-emancipation Jewish community in Bavaria.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"73 1","pages":"157 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90864284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Birds of the Birds’ Head Haggadah: Disputation Through Art","authors":"P. Portnoy","doi":"10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.4","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article challenges a current reassessment of the Birds’ Head Haggadah, which claims that the manuscript’s bird-headed Jews are not birds, but griffins: creatures whose nobility and strength enable open contest with the Christian oppressor. The Haggadah in fact resists such ennobling of its zoocephalism, and compelling analogues are adduced here for the birds. Masked with simple hominess, the characters confront Christian hegemony quietly and privately in a disputation through art. By co-opting and subverting Christian iconography and ritual, the illuminations urge Jewish commitment and resolve in the face of cultural domination – a social reality of insecurity that belies the sense of empowerment suggested in the griffin identity.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"45 1","pages":"63 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80855587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jewish Prayer in the Heart of Russia: Synagogues along the Volga River","authors":"V. Levin, Anna Berezin","doi":"10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.6","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The article explores the synagogues along the Volga River as a case demonstrating the development of the Jewish communities in the Russian interior, beyond the Pale of Settlement and outside the Russian capitals. The history of synagogues in the Volga region is examined here through the lenses of the history of architecture, the development of Jewish ritual, and the relations between Jews and the Russian authorities, which enabled or hindered the establishment of synagogues. Special attention is paid to the architectural models for the Volga synagogues and the degree of their visibility in the cityscapes.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"12 1","pages":"111 - 144"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82240543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jewish Museums in the United States: Foundations and Changes in the Twentieth Century","authors":"Shir Kochavi","doi":"10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.7","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Jewish museums were conceived in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The immigration of Jews from Europe in the 1930s as a result of the rise to power of the Nazi regime in Germany brought a wealth of knowledge and cultural objects to the United States. This also resulted in several key institutions’ salvaging of such artifacts. These collecting efforts led to the founding and extensive growth of important Jewish museums across the United States from the 1950s onward. The role of Jewish museums was perceived as an educator for future generations. From centers trying to find their place in society, Jewish museums became key to understanding local communities in the United States. Since the 1980s they have continued to develop through the preservation of old synagogues and by offering unique experiences to children.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"25 1","pages":"145 - 156"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88385343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jacob’s Dream: The Body and Its Image in Late Antique Jewish and Christian Narrative Spaces","authors":"Alexei M. Sivertsev","doi":"10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.3","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article explores the theme of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:10–22 as interpreted in late antique Jewish literature. The way Jewish texts imagine the relationship between Jacob’s sleeping body and his image on God’s throne as seen in the dream is structurally similar to the description of several scenarios of relic veneration in contemporaneous Christian accounts. In particular, the veneration of the imagined body of Saint Demetrius in the city of Thessaloniki, portrayed in some visions as resting on a couch inside a shrine, offers intriguing parallels to how Jacob’s dream comes to be conceptualized in Jewish literature. Pilgrim ampullae depicting the crucifixion scene and tokens featuring the bust portraits of Saint Symeon Stylites the Elder (d. 459) and the Younger (d. 592) on top of a column may offer another, this time material, intertext to the interpretation of Jacob’s dream. Central to these scenarios is a common formula, a scripted situation that organizes the scenario’s space as a system of relationships. Such formulas, the article argues, offered a range of possibilities independently explored by literatures and visual arts of the time.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"52 1","pages":"45 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90430398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Books in a Medieval Household: Ashkenazi Book Collecting in Its Material Context","authors":"Ilona Steimann","doi":"10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The meanings of books and book collections are inscribed in their trajectories, their material forms, and the ways owners and users interacted with them. To shed light on these rarely addressed aspects of book culture, this article examines the tangible dimensions of Jewish book collections in medieval Ashkenaz. By analyzing a range of sources, including Ashkenazi booklists, registers of Jewish property compiled by Christians, and manuscripts that were owned by Ashkenazi Jews, it provides new insights into the material, spatial, and temporal factors that may have affected the dissemination and preservation of knowledge.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"71 1","pages":"109 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86394438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identity and Place in the Art of Tuvia Katz","authors":"Aviva Roskin Winter","doi":"10.3828/aj.2021.17.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/aj.2021.17.6","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The art of Argentinian-born Israeli artist Tuvia Katz (b. 1936) reveals the different stages of his life, all of which are entwined in his search for Jewish identity. These stages include stylistic, iconographic, and iconological aspects. Katz is one of the most senior newly religious artists in Israel, who have established a distinctive, novel set of images that reflect the experience of becoming religious as a fundamental and profound change in their lives, lifestyles, and identities. Katz's art sheds light on the phenomenon of ḥazarah be-teshuvah in Israel in general and among artists in particular, which has grown in the past three decades.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"17 1","pages":"109 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47630431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Deliberate Imperfection in Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts from Iberia","authors":"Julie A. Harris","doi":"10.3828/aj.2021.17.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/aj.2021.17.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article presents several examples of puzzling imperfections found in illuminated Hebrew manuscripts from Iberia. Some of these can be credibly explained–by hypothesizing a shortage of materials resulting in an unfinished decoration, or artistic inexperience that led to an awkwardly designed interlace. Other imperfections–such as missing verses in a sequential inscription or iconography, the details of which confound art historians by their persistent divergence from canonical sources-are more difficult to explain away. The possibility that such imperfections might be intentional is investigated here; how might deliberate imperfections act as meaningful interventions in the context of Jewish culture?","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"17 1","pages":"1 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42922425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Memorabilia of Birth and Death as Evidence of Jewish Folk Customs","authors":"I. Rezak","doi":"10.3828/aj.2021.17.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/aj.2021.17.8","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Engraved silver plates bearing the names of deceased parents and the Hebrew dates of their deaths, termed yortsayt plaques, and coins altered to display the Hebrew letter heh are two coherent groups of Jewish artifacts previously unrecognized as distinct categories. The yortsayt memorabilia are from Russian Poland and date from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. The heh-inscribed coins were a form of childbirth amulet originating in western Europe from the seventeenth century onward. These previously inadequately documented artifacts are described and illustrated here, and a discussion of their distribution and presumptive usage is offered.","PeriodicalId":41476,"journal":{"name":"Ars Judaica-The Bar Ilan Journal of Jewish Art","volume":"17 1","pages":"141 - 168"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48153976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}