Obj. ID: 39225
Sacred and Ritual Objects Shabbat and Holiday Challah Cover, Jerusalem, circa 1910
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
Such printed textiles were made as souvenirs, as gifts from Jerusalem institutions for their supporters abroad and directly as ritual items. Such cloths are to be found in virtually every country in which Jews reside, having been sent their by institutions or as souvenirs. The iconographic scheme usually centered around images of the Holy Sites with other Jewish symbols. The textiles were printed on a variety of fabrics ranging from simple cotton to silk. They were usually textiles either for the Pesach Seder table or for use on Shabbat and Holidays as challah covers with the appropriate prayers of the Kiddush of that event. The earliest examples, yet from the 19th century, were produced by the famous printers of that period in Jerusalem.
This Shabbat and Holiday cloth example is one of fine images printed on a strikingly colored blue cotton textile. This example was not an institutional commission, but apparently a commercial venture of the publisher. This cloth was printed in the workshop of one of the foremost printers in Jerusalem, Avraham Moshe Luncz, who printed in Jerusalem for more than 30 years. There are some 30 objects in the Gross Family Collection that were printed by him.
Abraham Moses Luncz (December 9, 1854–1918) (Hebrew: אברהם לונץ) was a Russian scholar and editor born at Kovno, Russia. At age 14 he came to Jerusalem. Luncz suffered from early blindness, and founded, in conjunction with Dr. Koisewski, an institution for the blind at Jerusalem.
He owned a Hebrew printing press in the Ezrat Yisrael neighborhood, across the street from his own home in Even Yisrael. From there he issued a number of works by Palestinian scholars, Estori Farḥi's Kaftor wa-Feraḥ and Josef Schwarz's Tebu'ot ha-Areẓ being the first works published. He also produced a travel guide to Israel. As of 1904, he had in press a new edition of the Jerusalem Talmud with commentary and introduction.
In the exploration of the Holy Land, Luncz has rendered great services from the historical, geographical, and physical standpoints, through his guide-books for Palestine, his Palestine annuals, and his Jerusalem almanac: Netibot Ẓiyyon we-Yerushalayim: Topography of Jerusalem and Its Surroundings (vol. i, 1876) Jerusalem, Jahrbuch zur Beförderung einer Wissenschaftlich Genauen Kenntnis des Jetzigen und des Alten Palästina (Hebrew and German, 6 vols., 1881–1903, Hebrew: ירושלים, שנתון לידיעת ארץ ישראל) Literarischer Palästina-Almanach
Inscription: Lichvod Shabbat ve-Yom Tov
sub-set tree:
H | Heraldic composition | Central element | Medallion with inscription (central element of heraldic composition )
H | Heraldic composition | Supporters | Two lions
C | Crown
C | Columns
J | Jerusalem | Sites in Jerusalem: | Western Wall (Kotel) הכותל המערבי
T | Temple of Jerusalem | Temple of Jerusalem as the Dome of the Rock
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Holy Tombs | Cave of Machpelah (Tomb of the Patriarchs/Matriarchs)
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Holy Tombs | Rachel's Tomb
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Holy Tombs | Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes (the miracle maker), Tomb of, in Tiberias
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Holy Tombs | Simeon the Righteous, Tomb of קבר שמעון הצדיק
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | The Four Holy Cities
M | Menorah
A | Animals, the Four (Mishnah, Avot, 5:20)
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | Shechem (Nablus) שכם
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | Jericho יריחו
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel
J | Jerusalem | Sites in Jerusalem:
|