Prayers at the Tomb of Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet at Algiers

Artist Unknown

ca. 1870

In 1391, Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (known as Rivash), a respected rabbinic scholar and author of numerous responsa, suffered from the violent riots and mass conversions in Spain but then fled to Algiers, where he died around 1408. His tomb became a site of pilgrimage for Jews who traveled there for contemplation and prayer into the twentieth century. Pilgrimage to sites of cultural and religious importance remained common for some Jews in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This painting was based on an earlier version by German artist Wilhelm Gentz (1822–1890).

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Credits

The Jewish Museum, New York, gift of Dr. Harry G. Friedman.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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Painting of a man in a turban with a box of sewing supplies
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