A Rare English Silk Tallit with Embroidered Panels, circa 1820

A tallit (prayer shawl) is worn during daily and Sabbath prayers. This luxurious example has embroidered panels on the four corners to which the tsitsit (fringes) are attached, providing both a decorative element and a strengthening of the fabric in the place that it is most vulnerable.

The present elegant tallit features an atara (a decorative collar) from which it is possible to glean important information. The atara is embroidered with the name Aaron ben Asher Levy - and a comprehensive review of Western European Jewish genealogical records has identified only a single Aharon ben Asher Levy, born in 1801 in East London (Aldgate), of Dutch parentage. He married Rachel Hart in the early 1820s, fathered his first of ten children in 1824 and died in London on March 3, 1882. It is likely that Aharon ben Asher Levy was given this present tallit upon his marriage in London in the 1820s. The present tallit, of English origin, is thus a rare addition to the existing corpus of early Anglo-Jewish textiles.

Physical Description

Silk with embroidered corner panels, fringes and an embroidered atara (54 1/2 x 81 in.; 1385 x 2060 mm).

Literature

Esther Juhasz, The Jewish Wardrobe: From the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Milan: 5 Continents Editions; Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2012)

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett with Cissy Grossman, Fabric of Jewish Life: Textiles from the Jewish Museum Collection (New York: The Museum, 1977)