Furnishing American Synagogues: Jewish Ceremonial Art from the Jewish Museum, New York at the Cleveland Museum, of Art, Cleveland, OH

The Cleveland Museum of Art houses an encyclopedic collection, giving visitors valuable insights and perspectives into the lives and cultures of people around the world and throughout time. To enhance its permanent collection and to more fully represent the stories and objects that are important to our communities, the museum is displaying art on loan from the Jewish Museum.

In observance of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, these loans feature Jewish ritual objects used in synagogues and daily life in the United States. The works range from an early 1900s silver Torah crown, or an adornment for a closed Torah scroll, to contemporary mixed-media works such as an alms (donation) container. The highlight is a monumental Torah ark from a synagogue in Sioux City, Iowa, carved by a Jewish immigrant in 1899. Together, the loans illustrate a wide array of styles, diverse sources of inspiration, and the evolving forms and functions of Jewish ritual objects in American life.