Ars Judaica, Volume 10
The Bar-Ilan Journal of Jewish Art
The Michael J. Floersheim Memorial for Jewish Art
About the editors
Bracha Yaniv is Professor of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. Her research topics are Jewish ceremonial objects and synagogue art. She is the author of The Carved Wooden Torah Arks of Poland and Ceremonial Synagogue Textiles from Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Italian Communities, both of which will be published in English by the Littman Library.
Sara Offenberg is Lecturer in the Jewish Art Department at Bar-Ilan University. She published articles and a book on Jewish-Christian relations in art and literature, the image of the Jew in Christian art and literature, Hasidei Ashkenaz, Piyyut Commentary, and Hebrew illuminated prayer books.
Mirjam Rajner is Lecturer in the Jewish Art Department at Bar-Ilan University. Her numerous publications deal with the early art of Marc Chagall, the art of Russian, Polish, and South-Eastern artists of Jewish origin in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, and the art created during and immediately after the Holocaust.
Ilia Rodov is Head of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. He is the author of many works on European synagogue art, focusing on the history, patronage, and meanings of synagogue paintings, sculptures, architectural decoration, and furniture design.
About the contributors
Ziva Amishai-Maisels, Professor, History of Art Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Eleonora Bergman, Emanuel Ringelbaum Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw
Evelyn M. Cohen, Professor, Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), New York
Caroline Goldberg Igra, Guest Curator, Beit Hatfusot, Tel Aviv
William L. Gross, Collector, Tel Aviv
Katrin Kogman-Appel, Professor, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva
Sergey R. Kravtsov, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Vladimir Levin, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Sarit Shalev-Eyni, History of Art Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Larry Silver, History of Art Department, University of Pennsylvania
Ronit Steinberg, History and Theory Department, Bezalel Academy of Arts and design, Jerusalem
Contents
Editors’ Note
The Mahzor as a Cosmological Calendar: The Zodiac Signs in Medieval Ashkenazi Context
SARIT SHALEV-EYNI
‘Elisha ben Abraham, Known as Cresques’: Scribe, Illuminator, and Mapmaker in Fourteenth-Century Mallorca
KATRIN KOGMAN-APPEL
A Surprising Model for Charlotte Rothschild’s Haggadah of 1842
EVELYN M. COHEN
Sampler Embroidery Past and Present as an Expression of Merging Jewish Identity
RONIT STEINBERG
The Restoration of Loss: Jechezkiel David Kirszenbaum’s Exploration of Personal Displacement
CAROLINE GOLDBERG IGRA
The Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street: Warsaw Inspirations
ELEONORA BERGMAN
Special item
Leviathan Thanks the Lord: Perek Shirah on a Wall of the Great Synagogue in Radyvyliv
SERGEY R. KRAVTSOV and VLADIMIR LEVIN
Book Reviews
Obsessions of a Diasporist
Cilly Kugelmann, Eckhart Gillen, and Hubertus Gaßner, Obsessions: R. B. Kitaj 1932–2007
ZIVA AMISHAI-MAISELS
Israel’s Art Viewed and Reviewed
Yigal Zalmona, A Century of Israeli Art
LARRY SILVER
In Memoriam
Alfred Moldovan (1921–2013)
WILLIAM L. GROSS
Abbreviations
Contributors to this issue
Ars Judaica is an annual publication of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. It showcases the Jewish contribution to the visual arts and architecture from antiquity to the present from a variety of perspectives, including history, iconography, semiotics, psychology, sociology, and folklore. As such it is a valuable resource for art historians, collectors, curators, and all those interested in the visual arts.
Volumes of Ars Judaica are distributed by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization throughout the world, except Israel. Orders and enquiries from Israeli customers should be directed to:
Ars Judaica
Department of Jewish Art
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan 52900
telephone 03 5318413
email ajudaica@mail.biu.ac.il