Chevra Kadisha Memorial Cards in Original Iron Box – Budapest, 1880

Large handmade iron charity container, Hungary, circa 1850. The iron tzedakah box was installed within the wall at the Hungarian Synagogue. On the fr...

A charity container designed by Alfred Salzman for the United Charity Institution of Jerusalem in 1920 is an intriguing artifact, reflecting the historical, cultural, and charitable ...

A Rabbi Meir Ba'al Haness charity container from Israel circa 1920 is an artifact associated with Jewish religious devotion and charitable traditions. Rabbi Meir Ba'al Haness, also ...

A Kollel America Tiferet Jerusalem Charity Container from New York circa 1930 is tied to the charitable activities of Jewish immigrant communities in America raising donations for ca...

A rare Judaic memorial piece for mother.

Amazing and scarce JUDAICA object, we have here one of the most touching jewish objects we had for a long time, this small silver dowry box was made in Algeria in the early 19th century, it is all covered with symbols of jewish faith and of couples, the sliding lid has 2 flanking birds with hamsa (protective hand) on each side and a flower vase in the middle. one side shows two flanking lions with a tree in the middle and the other side shows again two big and two small birds with a flower bowl in the middle, front side has a key hole and next to it there is the Hebrew inscription ס״ט״" which says Siman tov or in English "a good sign" it is taken from the wedding blessing, underneath the lock there is another inscription with the name ״עזיזה בת אברהם בן חמו״ which is the name of the bride, her father and her grandfathers name. the box is full marked a lot of times with the silversmith mark, every side of the box is marked. this box was probably ordered by the grooms family to hold the jewelry they are giving to the bride as dowry, this type of objects are rare and there are just a few of them on museum collections. DOWRY (Heb. נְדֻנְיָה), the property a wife brings to her husband at marriage; the Yiddish equivalent, nadn, is from the same root. The custom of nedunyah became clearly defined and institutionalized only in the talmudic period. In biblical times, mohar (מֹהַר), whereby the groom bought his wife from her father (Gen. 24:53; Ex. 22:15–16; Hos. 3:2), was the accepted practice. It was then customary that the groom give the bride gifts, and that she bring certain property to her husband's home upon marriage: slaves, cattle, real estate, etc. (cf. Gen. 24:59–61; 29; Judg. 1:14ff.; I Kings 9:16). Evidence of the custom of nedunyah is to be found in Tobit (7:14; 8:21) and in the Assuan papyri (Cowley, Aramaic, nos. 15, 18). Gradually, mohar was superseded by the ketubbah custom according to which the husband merely assumed the responsibility of compensation to his wife in case he divorced her: he had to pay her 200 zuzim if she had been a virgin at the time of marriage, and 100 zuzim if a widow or divorcée (see *Ketubbah). By talmudic times, the institution of nedunyah was prevalent; the father gave a dowry to the bride since the daughter was excluded from paternal inheritance. Fifty zuzim (equivalent to the worth of 180 grams of silver) was the minimum amount a father was obliged to give to his daughter (Ket. 6:5). Parents usually gave much more, according to their social standing. Community funds provided the dowry for an orphan or a very poor girl (ibid.; cf. Sh. Ar., YD 251:8). In case of her father's death, the brothers of a minor girl were obliged to give her the minimum dowry, and the court estimated how much her father would have given her above the minimum dowry. The sum was then taken out of the father's estate and given to the daughter upon majority (Ket. 6:6; 68a–69b). In the absence of such an estimate, each daughter was entitled to receive one-tenth of the value of her father's estate in money, or in valuables (Yad, Ishut, 20:4–7; Sh. Ar., EH 113:4). If the father was unable or unwilling to pay the promised dowry at the betrothal ceremony, the groom could refuse to marry his bride (Ket. 13:5; Ket. 108b–109a). Insistence on exact payment of the promised dowry, however, was frowned upon by later rabbinic authorities (Rema to Sh. Ar., EH 2:1). In certain communities it was customary for the groom's father to make a dowry contribution equal to that of the bride's father (Ket. 102b). The dowry, whether given in real estate, slaves, money, or chattel was recorded in the marriage contract (the ketubbah) and in some instances one-third or one-fifth of the actual value of the dowry was added to the sum mentioned in the ketubbah. Based upon a decree enacted by *Simeon b. Shetah (first century C.E.), the Talmud ruled that the husband and his entire property were liable for compensation as stipulated in the ketubbah, either in case he died (when she collected the sum specified in the ketubbah from the heirs) or in case he divorced his wife (Ket. 82b). For the status of the dowry and the husband's rights and obligations, see below. The rabbinic enactments (Takkanot Shum) by R. Jacob *Tam and by the rabbinic synod of the communities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz (Germany) stipulated that if a woman died...

A large Russian silver Jewish Megillah case and scroll Russian, 19th century Measures: height 23cm, diameter 7cm This remarkable piece is a Russian ...

Circa 1890-1920. This Neoclassical, Judaic, Egyptian revival, Orientalist Mizrach sign, was produced in British Mandate Palestine by the chromolithograph process at the beginning of the 20th century. It pictures vignettes of holy places. with a hand written memorial. It was for the Tzedakah charity fund for the century-old institutions in Jerusalem: The great "Torah Center Etz Chaim"; a Free Kitchen for poor children and orphans; the famous Bikur Cholim Hospital with its dispensaries and clinics and the only Home for Incurable Invalids in Eretz Israel. They also worked with Arthur Szyk and Alfred Salzmann.. The A.L. Monsohn Lithographic Press (Monzon Press, Monson Press, דפוס אבן א"ל מאנזאהן, דפוס מונזון) was established in Jerusalem in 1892 by Abraham-Leib (or Avrom-Leyb) Monsohn II (Jerusalem, c.1871-1930) and his brother Moshe-Mordechai (Meyshe-Mordkhe). Sponsored by members of the Hamburger family, the brothers had been sent to Frankfurt, Germany in 1890 to study lithography. Upon returning to Jerusalem in 1892 with a hand press, they established the A.L. Monsohn Lithographic Press in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the Information Center for Israeli Art A.L. Monsohn "created complex decorations for documents and oriental calendars that combined the tradition of Jewish art with modern printing techniques such as photographic lithography, raised printing and gilding." The founders of the Monsohn press produced Jewish-themed color postcards, greeting cards, Jewish National Fund stamps, and maps documenting the evolution of the Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel in the nineteenth-twentieth centuries; religious material such as decorative plaques for synagogues, portraits of Old Yishuv rabbis such as Shmuel Salant, Mizrah posters indicating the direction of prayer for synagogues, memorial posters, and posters for Sukkot booths; color frontispieces for books such as Pentateuch volumes and the early song collections of Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (e.g., Shire Zion, Jerusalem 1908); artistic wedding invitations; and labels, packaging and advertisements for the pioneering entrepreneurs of Eretz Israel. The texts appearing in the Monsohn products were in several languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, English, German (e.g., a c1920 trilingual Hebrew-English-Arabic "Malaria Danger" broadside warning the public of mosquitoes spreading malaria). Many of the brilliantly colored postcards and maps can be seen online as can the artistic invitations to his children's weddings which Monsohn published in the Jerusalem Hebrew press. For years, the Monsohn (later, Monson/Monzon) Press was considered the best and most innovative in the country—pioneering in such techniques as gold-embossing and offset printing, among others. Early items for tourists included collections of Flowers of the Holy Land (c. 1910–1918)—pressed local flowers accompanied by scenes from the Eretz Israel countryside and relevant verses from the Bible, edited by Jsac Chagise (or Itzhak Haggis), an immigrant from Vitebsk, and bound in carved olive wood boards. Shortly after World War I Monsohn (now spelled מונזון) used zincography to produce the prints included in the Hebrew Gannenu educational booklets for young children illustrated by Ze'ev Raban of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and printed in Jerusalem by Hayim Refael Hakohen (vol. 1, 1919; vols. 2–3, 1920). In 1934 Monsohn moved into the new, western part of Jerusalem, in a shop with four presses and 30 workers, including Abraham-Leib's sons, David, Yosef, Moshe and Shimon, and his daughter Raytse's husband, Abraham Barmacz. The concern did business with all sectors of the city's population, including Arabs, for whom they printed in Arabic. Among their clients were members of the Ginio, Havilio, and Elite families, and Shemen, Dubek, and other renowned national brands, manufacturing products such as wine, candies, oil, and cigarettes. They also printed movie and travel posters, and government posters, postcards and documents, hotel luggage labels...