An Exquisite Torah Mantle, [Bohemia]: 1838

Gilt metallic thread on cream silk with metallic thread fringes (38 x 23 in.; 955 x 584 mm).

The Hebrew dedicatory inscription records that this magnificent textile was donated by “Solomon, son of the philanthropic leader and nobleman Moses Jerusalem, in memory of the soul of his eminent wife, the splendor of her husband, Freydl, of blessed memory, daughter of the exalted nobleman Aaron Baer Příbram [Przibram], in the year [5]598 [1838].”

Solomon, the wealthy individual who commissioned and donated this splendid Torah mantle, was a member of the renowned Jerusalem family, leaders of the Prague Jewish community in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Moses, Solomon, and Leopold Jerusalem played a significant role in the development of the Bohemian textile industry by introducing modern machinery in the nineteenth century.

Literature

Ludmila Kybalová, Eva Kosáková, et al., Textiles from Bohemian and Moravian Synagogues: From the Collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague (Prague: Jewish Museum in Prague, 2003).