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The Synagogue Mejor is a synagogue in Bursa, Turkey, built in the late fifteenth century by Jews who settled in the Ottoman Empire after being expelled from Majorca. Its name “Mejor” commemorates the…
The embroidered structure in the center of this silk Torah ark curtain is thought to be a loose representation of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, with its six minarets and entryway stairs. A somewhat…
The origin of this Torah scroll is in Turkey. It was donated by the Camondo family, one of the most important Jewish families in Istanbul, many of whose members settled in Paris and greatly…
Kabbalists prayed using the basic Jewish prayers, but added certain elements according to their own tradition. The prayers are often presented with kavanot (special devotional forms, meanings, and…
This is the frontispiece and first page of the Constantinople Polyglot Bible, the first of two multilingual editions of the Pentateuch printed by Eliezer Soncino in Constantinople. It contained the…
The masterpiece of eighteenth-century Ladino literature is the encyclopedic commentary on the Bible, Me‘am lo‘ez (From a People of Foreign Tongue), by Jacob Huli, the first volume of which was…
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…
El Tiempo (Time) was the first Ladino-language newspaper published in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) and the longest-running Ladino newspaper in the city, with a run of almost sixty…
Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (reigned 681–669 BCE). This copy of the treaty was found in the inner sanctum of the Assyrian temple in Tell Tayinat (in southeastern Turkey), where it was…
In the nineteenth century, especially in the era before photography, it was common for artists to travel to exotic or picturesque locations in Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, and to produce…
