A Silk Torah Ark Curtain (Parokhet)

Multicolored silk stitching on a silk ground (95 x 80 in.; 2413 x 2030 mm).​

The Torah Ark curtain, which is hung before the Ark, serves as a partition between it and the prayer hall, just as the biblical parokhet separated the Holy section of the Tabernacle and the Temple from the Holy of Holies. The curtain became a fixture in Ashkenazic synagogues during the Middle Ages. The present example, which once belonged to the Waltham Forest Hebrew Congregation located in northeast London, is embellished with floral and architectural imagery reminiscent of the Judaica produced by the Jews of Iran.