Ars Judaica, Volume 9

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.

In this volume, Avraham Faust considers a unique phenomenon in the material culture of ancient Israel during the biblical period: pottery without painted decoration. Moshe Idel, an expert on Jewish mysticism, sheds new light on the figure of Helios in the Hammath Tiberias synagogue mosaic, comparing it to descriptions of angel ‘Anafi’el in the Heikhalot literature and medieval Kabbalistic texts. Rahel Fronda attributes a group of medieval Ashkenazi Bible manuscripts containing similar micrographic ornaments to the same scribal workshop, possibly near Würzburg. Alexander Mishory reveals a Scroll of Esther illuminated by one of the first Bezalel artists, Shmuel Ben-David, and focuses on his use of fowl and fox imagery deriving from an Arab fable. Artur Tanikowski discusses social awareness and humanist values in the work of Polish modernists of Jewish origin. The Special Item by Nurit Sirkis Bank is dedicated to hasidic wedding rings. A silver ring, square on the outside, round within, and engraved with the Hebrew letter he is understood as a symbol of unity and harmony between man and woman, the human and the Divine, nature and culture, and even good and evil.

Bracha Yaniv is Head of the Department 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.

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 Lecturer in 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.

Walter Cahn, Professor, History of Art Department, Yale University
Avraham Faust, Director, Tel ‘Eton Excavations, Institute of Archaeology, Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University
Rahel Fronda, Hebraica and Judaica Subject Librarian, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Carole Herselle Krinsky, Professor, Art History Department, New York University
Moshe Idel, Professor, Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Senior Researcher, Shalom Hartman Institute
David Malkiel, Professor, Department of Jewish History, Bar-Ilan University
Alec Mishory, independent scholar, Israel
Ilia Rodov, Lecturer, Department of Jewish Art, Bar-Ilan University
Nurit Sirkis Bank, Curator, Wolfson Museum of Jewish Art, Hechal Shlomo; doctoral candidate, Bar-Ilan University
David Stern, Professor, Jewish Studies Faculty, University of Pennsylvania
Artur Tanikowski, Graphic Department, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw; Faculty of Humanities, Fryderyk Chopin Uiversity of Music, Warsaw; Curator, Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw

Editors’ Note
BRACHA YANIV, MIRJAM RAJNER, ILIA RODOV

Decoration versus Simplicity: Pottery and Ethnic Negotiation in Early Israel
AVRAHAM FAUST

Holding an Orb in His Hand: The Angel ‘Anafi’el and a Late Antiquity Helios Mosaic
MOSHE IDEL

Attributing of Three Ashkenazi Bibles with Micrographic Images
RAHEL FRONDA

A Purim Masquerade: Fowls and Foxes in Shmuel Ben David’s Illuminated Scroll of Esther (c. 1923)
ALEC MISHORY

Toward the Philosophy of Work: The Late Paintings of Leopold Gottlieb
ARTUR TANIKOWSKI

Special Item

Opposites United: The Square-Round Silver Wedding Ring
NURIT SIRKIS BANK

Book Reviews

The New Jewish Book History
Sarit Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians: Hebrew Book Illumination from Lake Constance
DAVID STERN

Monuments of an Exotic Community
Remnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname: Epitaphs, eds. Aviva Ben-Ur and Rachel Frankel
Remnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname: Essays, eds. Aviva Ben-Ur and Rachel Frankel
DAVID MALKIEL

Comprehensive View of Hungarian Synagogues
Rudolf Klein, Zsinagógák Magyarországon 1782–1918: Fejlo˝déstörténet, tipológia és epítészeti jelentöség / Synagogues in Hungary 1782–1918: Genealogy, Typology and Architectural Significance
CAROL HERSELLE KRINSKY

Research of Research of Jewish Art: Focusing on Lithuania
ILIA RODOV

Research of Jewish Art: Art in the Ukrainian Context
ILIA RODOV

Jewish Art in Modern Times: A New Appraisal
Samantha Baskind and Larry Silver, Jewish Art: A Modern History
WALTER CAHN