These richly decorated Torah finials (rimonim), cast in silver and partly gilt, and adorned with many bells and topped with crowns, were created in London. Of the few surviving seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English Torah finials, some were made by the non-Jewish silversmith William Spackman (active 1703–1726). He followed the style established by Abraham de Oliveyra, a silversmith from Amsterdam, who is credited as the maker of other early English finials. These finials were eventually used in the Great Synagogue of Sydney, Australia, which was established in the early nineteenth century.
The Cabalist:Sexton, light the candles. [The Sextonlights each man’s candle. The Cabalistadvances slowly to The Girl, who stands slackly, her body making small occasional jerking movements, apparently…
Mathias Goeritz began his Messages series in the late 1950s and continued adding to it until the end of his career. He set out to create a modernist religious art. Works in the series often referred…