For nearly thirty years the Center for Jewish Art, a research institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has carried out a comprehensive documentation program of the visual cultural heritage of the Jewish people. Through detailed descriptions and photography by our researchers the vanishing objects are preserved for future generations. Prof. Bezalel Narkiss, Israel Prize laureate, established the Jerusalem Index of Jewish Art, in which there are at present about 200,000 documents of objects originating from all over the globe, which range from a coin to a complex of synagogues. Documentation is carried out in five sections of the Index: Ancient and Modern Arts, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts, Synagogues and Ritual Objects, as well as Jewish Ritual Architecture. The objects are also classified according to iconographical subjects, with references to textual sources for cross-reference, biographies and bibliography.
Our fieldwork of rescue expeditions, carried out by postgraduates, Ph.D. candidates and post-doctoral researchers, are a race against time finding abandoned or destroyed monuments and objects which are eventually stolen and sold by auction or dealers. The Jerusalem Index had documented the remains of Jewish heritage in over 40 countries, in Eastern and Western Europe, in the Balkans, in the Far and Middle East as well as in North Africa. Through documentation and computerization our researchers try to reconstruct the varied visual culture of lost communities, and use the resultant study for education of future generations of pupils, students and researchers.
The Center is also an educational institute, which conducts seminars and symposia and encourages scholarly research and publication relating to the field of Jewish visual culture.
Researchers and Staff
Management:
Dr. Rina Talgam, Director
Prof. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Head, Jerusalem Index of Jewish Art
Dr. Simona Gronemann, Deputy Director
Administration:
Dvora Sax, Office Manager
Gilad Hemed, Accounts Administrator, Computerization Coordinator, Web Master and Designer
Talya Teiger, Publications and Office Coordinator
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts:
Michal Sternthal, Section Head
Estherlee Kanon
Anna Nizza
Ilona Steimann
Synagogue and Ritual Objects:
Ariella Amar, Section Head
Einat Ron
Jewish Ritual Architecture:
Prof. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Section Head
Dr. Vladimir Levin, Historian and Archives Coordinator
Dr. Sergei Kravtsov
Dipl.-Ing. Zoya Arshavsky
Dipl.-Ing. Ivan Ceresnjes
Dr.-Ing. Katrin Kessler
Academic Committee:
Prof. Rachel Elior (Jewish Thought), Chairperson
Dr. Rina Talgam (Art History), Director, Center for Jewish Art
Prof. Richard I. Cohen (Jewish History)
Prof. Joseph Patrich (Archaeology)
Prof. Shalom Sabar (Art History and Folklore)
Prof. Zeev Weiss (Archaeology)
