Édouard Moyse was born in Nancy and raised in Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. He became one of the first artists in France (along with the French Jewish painter Jacques-Émile-Édouard Brandon) to represent Jewish subjects. Moyse painted biblical themes, scenes of Jewish life and ritual, significant historical events in the life of the French Jewish community, and portraits of rabbis. He first showed his work at the Salon, the annual art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, in 1850 and was awarded a second-class medal in 1862.
Édouard Moyse’s paintings of Jewish religious life earned him the nickname “the painter of rabbis.” His paintings often depict an idealized Judaism not situated in a specific place or time. The…
The new Rabbi pleased everybody, because he was beyond all doubt a righteous man. I was then a boy of twelve. My father received two letters from Rabbi Yukel on the subject of a good match for me in…
This basin from Kuntillet Ajrud is much too large to have been used for a practical purpose—it weighs more than 300 pounds (136 kg) and is large enough for two adults to sit in. The inscription…