THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Boris Smolar's
`Between You
. . . and Me'
Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1984, JTA, Inc.)
MUSEUM MILESTONES: The Jewish Museum in
New York, located in the aristocratic part of Fifth Avenue
in the magnificent mansion of the late Felix Warburg —
which his wife Frieda donated in 1944, after his death, for a
Jewish museum — is today among the top 50 museums in
the entire United States, including museums of all types. It
is the largest Jewish museum in the Western Hemisphere.
The museum is starting its 40th year of being housed
in the former elegant Warburg residence. Its origin goes
back to 80 years ago, when it was established by the Jewish
Theological Seminary in its library, in 1904, as a small
museum of Jewish ceremonial art. In the Warburg edifice it
grew and expanded to what it is today — a most com-
prehensive collection representing Jewish religious, cul-
tural, archeological and other objects of Jewish artistic
contents throughout the ages. The museum is still under
the auspices of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
VARIETY OF PROGRAMS: The museum also con-
ducts programs for students tailored to specific grade levels
and curriculum needs. Special family workshops enable
parents and children to learn together about Jewish holi-
days, traditions and crafts. Adult programs, created in con-
junction with exhibitions, feature lectures by curators and
other prominent guest speakers.
Among the various collections in the Jewish Museum
is the famous Benguiat collection accumulated by a Jewish
religious family proud of a lineage that could be traced to
11th Century Spain. Members of the family made pur-
chases in Syria, Turkey, Greece, North Africa, Italy and
Gibraltar, as well as in America. The collection, first
brought over from Smyrna to Boston where it was exhibited
in the Museum of Fine Arts, contains over 400 examples of
jewelry, gold, silver, metal ware, porcelain, pottery, glass,
tapestries, prints, brocades, velvets, silk paintings — all of
artistic and historical merit, appertaining to biblical and
traditional ceremonies used in places of worship and the
home, and coins and manuscripts relating to Jewish his-
tory.
Another important collection there is the Harry
Freedman Collection. Freedman, a businessman and
philantropist who received a doctorate in economics, made
his acquisitions at the time of the Holocaust. It has about
6,000 books, manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, prints and
ceremonial objects, including two magnificent purple silk
curtains for the Torah Ark from 17th Century Italy, em-
broidered all in gold and silver.
A third important collection is the Benjamin Collec-
tion, which includes important paintings by Jewish artists,
silver and gold ornaments for Torah scrolls, a collection of
,18th and 19th Century examples of important Jewish craft
of silver openwork, magnificent examples of Torah Ark of
silk brocades, ornamented with silver-gilt laces,and exam-
ples of Jewish silk craft. This is a specifically Polish collec-
tion, acquired by one who was an ardent and active Zionist
in Warsaw, a devout Jew and a lover of his people and their
traditions.
A CAPTIVATING VOLUME: Speaking of the var-
ious collections of Jewish art and artifacts that one sees in
the Jewish Museum, it is fitting to recommend those in-
terested in Jewish art — especially ceremonial art — to
acquire an excellent and beautifully produced volume
entitled "Jewish Ceremonial Art and Religious Obser-
vance."
The author, Dr. Abram Kanof, is a noted physician and
also a noted collector of Jewish ceremonial art.
Dr. Kanof s book is richly illustrated with many im-
pressive photographs in black and white and in full color of
Jewish ceremonial objects, many of which are today in the
Jewish Museum.
The author shows great Jewish scholarship in his book.
He covers all aspects of ceremony and art in Jewish life. The
chapters deal with Judaism and art, form and style in
Jewish ceremonial art, motifs and §ymbols, the ceremo-
nials in each of the Jewish holidays and their significance,
ceremonials in the Jewish home as distinct from those in
the synagogue, the evolution in the architecture of the
synagogue in various periods of Jewish history, including
the modern-built synagogue of today in the United States.
Ethiopian Jews'
Group to Aid
Africa Hungry
Most Popular
TEL AVIV (ZINS) —
Former President Yitzhak
Navon was voted "Man of
the Year" and "Most Posit-
ive Personality of 1982-
1983" in a poll conducted by
the Public Opinion Re-
search Institute. Navon
narrowly outpolled former
Permier Menahem Being in
the poll.
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
The American Association
for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ)
has joined with more than
20 other private voluntary
and public interest organ-
izations concerned about
the drought in Africa in a
newly-formed Ad Hoc
Group on the Africa Food
Emergency.
Friday, January 6, 1984 19
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Rep. Thomas Daschle
(D-S.D.) urged that $130
million which has already
been appropriated by Con-
gress under the Title II Food
for Peace program "be
utilized now" to meet the
need in Africa.
FRIDAY
JANUARY 20
Nathan Shapiro, the
AAEJ's president, said in a
statement from the group's
headquarters in Highland
Park, Ill., that "now, more
than ever, as conditions in
Africa continue to worsen
due to meager harvests and
depleted food stocks, the
United States government
must increase its rate and
level of response to pleas
from international relief
agencies for food, medical
and transportation
supplies."
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Jewish Agency to Aid Olim
JERUSALEM (JNI) —
The Jewish Agency will
help the immigrant
societies in Israel in an ef-
fort to obtain housing and
employment for olim (new
immigrants), according to
Arye Dulzin, the agency's
executive chairman.
Ordard-12 Plaza)
Dulzin, in a statement
made last month, pledged to
help lobby the government
for more housing and easier
purchasing terms while
acknowledging the "worri-
some signs" of increased
unemployment among re-
cent immigrants.
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41
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