Obj. ID: 39210
Sacred and Ritual Objects  Passover cloth, Jerusalem, circa 1920

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 purchased 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 is a fine example of the great many textiles that were printed at the behest of various institutions in Jerusalem for distribution to their supporters, mainly abroad. This Passover plate cover uses exactly the same images as those two different colored clothes in Gross Family Collection 001.015.005. While the name of the printer of those two, A. L. Monsohn, is printed on them, this one carries no name, is on what seems to be a more modern polished material and therefore can be assumed to be a later copy. Inscription: Lichvod Chag ha-Matzot......