Obj. ID: 39220  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 example is printed on a green colored cotton fabric and is of larger size than most such clothes. It was printed in the workshop of Avraham Luncz, a major figure in late 19th century Jerusalem affairs.

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 (Hebrew; since 1894).

Inscription: Lichvod Shabbat ve-Yom Tov