This Torah crown from Suriname was made originally in Amsterdam by Evert van Heerdan (active 1644–1683). It is a fine repoussé piece exemplifying the mastery of Dutch silverwork practices. Inscribed on the reverse side of the crown is the name of its donor, Semuel Coen Nassi, a prominent member of the Jewish community who donated this piece. He bought the land on which Suriname’s first synagogue was built and was also a commander of the community’s militia. Handsomely decorated with punched, engraved leaves, flowers, and animals, the crown’s band is additionally adorned with diamonds, circles, and other geometric forms.
In 1934, the German-Jewish entrepreneur and philanthropist Salman Schocken (1877–1959) commissioned Mendelsohn to design a villa for him and his family in Jerusalem, where they had fled from Nazi…
The image of an ear on this coin may symbolize God as the one who hears prayers, as in passages such as Psalm 34:16, 18, and Psalm 130:2. The image is paralleled on Egyptian stelas that depict…
Though Nikel’s style of expressionist abstraction has sometimes been characterized as lyrical abstraction, a style associated with Israel’s New Horizons group, she was not formally connected with any…