Jewish Art & Artifacts from Muslim Lands

Jews have a strong heritage in the Middle East and parts of North Africa like Morocco. Two new exhibitions in New York focus on that heritage, according to this interesting article in the New York Times.

One exhibition at the Center for Jewish history is called Light and Shadows: The Story of Iranian Jews.  The image above was painted on doors in Iran in the 19th century.

The Museum for Jewish Heritage  has an exhibit which focuses on Iraqi Jewish art called “Discovery and Recovery.”

Here is a video clip from the Museum for Jewish Heritage explaining how they are trying to preserve Iraqi art. Saddam Hussein confiscated much of the Jewish archives and stored them in his basement which flooded in 2003. The clip shows how American conservators tried to rescue some of the manuscripts.

The Museum for Jewish Heritage has an excellent online archive. The pages below are from a 1568 Jewish Bible. The description says that it “is one of the earliest printed books discovered in the Mukhabarat headquarters. Printed in late Renaissance era Venice by Giovannidi Gara, the central biblical text is surrounded by rabbinic commentaries.”