Torah Finials (Cochin)
These Torah finials from Cochin, India, were made around 1565. Elegant and simple, crafted from metal, their surfaces appear to be hammered, with one adorned with a Hebrew inscription. The earliest Jewish communities in Cochin were established as early as 1000 CE, and legends claim that Jews were already there in biblical times. By the late sixteenth century, the earlier Jewish community had been augmented by new arrivals, Sephardic refugees from the Spanish and Portuguese expulsions, as well as immigrants from Iraq, Persia, Yemen, and Germany.
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Credits
© Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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Related Guide
Early Modern Visual and Material Culture
1500–1750
Early modern Jewish visual culture flourished, with illuminated manuscripts, ornate synagogues, and portraiture alongside increasing non-Jewish interest in Jewish customs and greater Jewish self-representation.
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