Medal Honoring Moses Montefiore: The 1840 Damascus Affair
Artist Unknown
1840
Image
Engage with this Source
What factors might Ottoman Jews in Damascus have needed to consider when they decided to reach out to global Jewish communities for support?
Does the fact that the main accusers in the Damascus affair were Ottoman Christians and French officials have relevance to this narrative? Why or why not?
What do this medal and the story behind it tell us about international Jewish politics in the nineteenth century?
You may also like
Shiviti
This remarkable illustration is at the same time a shiviti—traditionally, a decorative plaque bearing the verse: “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence”—and a topographic map of the land of Israel…
Ewer and Basin
This ewer and basin from Turkey were used to wash hands ritually during the Passover seder. Owned by the Benguiat family, a large and prominent Sephardic family in the Ottoman Empire, the objects…
Ketubah (Oran)
A ketubah is a religious and legal contract of marriage. Traditionally, it outlines the conjugal and economic conditions of a marriage and is written in Aramaic. This ornate ketubah from Oran, Algeria…
Paper Cut—Mizraḥ
Paper cuts have been a tradition of Jewish folk art, with the earliest record of one dating to the fourteenth century. Given the widespread availability of paper in Europe by the mid-nineteenth…
H. M. King Leopold I Stamp
This postage stamp with an image of King Leopold I of Belgium was the first stamp issued on the European continent.
The Music Room of Fanny Hensel
Fanny Hensel (1805–1847), the granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and financier Daniel Itzig, and sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, was born in Hamburg into a wealthy…