Bracha Yaniv, Ceremonial Synagogue Textiles: From Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Italian Communities

Bracha Yaniv’s monograph on synagogal textiles, originally published in Hebrew in 2009, and translated here by Yohai Goell, is the first English-language publication to investigate this somewhat under-explored aspect of material culture. The book’s importance is self-evident, and it should become essential reading for students and scholars of Judaica and religious textiles in general. The attention synagogal textiles have attracted so far is surprisingly limited, especially considering the role that Jews played in textile-related professions throughout the centuries, and so this book addresses a pressing void in the existing literature. Its contents are divided into three sections, with the first providing a substantial foundation on the subject. The first chapter discusses the evolution of synagogal textiles in correlation with Jewish religious practices. As the written sources are fragmented and earlier objects scarce, the difficulty of creating a diachronic narrative is addressed by exploiting visual sources as well, mainly though not exclusively Western. The second chapter offers an overview of the fabrics and techniques preferred for religious use, in relation to the wider cultural context. This chapter focuses on embroidery, a much-appreciated craft in Europe especially during the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. The author is very informative on the Jewish tradition of embroidery, a lesserknown activity of the community compared to weaving and the textile trade. From an anthropological point of view, it is interesting that the reuse of women’s garments as ceremonial textiles was acceptable. Notably, this is a practice that textile historians have documented in other religions as well (for example, Christianity, Buddhism), and has continued until relatively recently. Thus, this chapter illuminates how the ceremonial use of textiles reflected a diasporic community’s integration into different societies. This approach of pointing out both common and divergent elements emerges in the rest of the book, as well as in the third chapter, which is dedicated to the Torah wrapper and binder. The fourth chapter, dedicated to the Torah mantle, brings forward another thought-provoking argument: that each community’s clothing not only affected the types of fabric used in the synagogue, but also the way the specific ceremonial veil (the mantle) was cut, suggesting a most intriguing association between ceremonial textiles and secular costume. The fifth chapter examines the adornment of the Torah ark curtain and valance, including both generically secular designs and Jewish motifs like the Gateway to Heaven, cherubim, the crown, the Temple and its vessels, and other examples. Overall, Yaniv makes the point that synagogal textiles probably constitute the most authentic expression of Jewish material culture as most craftsmen involved in their manufacture were Jewish. In addition, the symbolism conveyed in certain textiles nurtured the prevalence of significant motifs — for example, in those dressing the Torah ark. An interesting parallel here is the use of the sanctuary door curtain in the Greek Orthodox Church: the idea of draping a gateway to the spiritual sphere seems to be shared by both cultures. In the second section the reader finds a fully illustrated and annotated catalogue of synagogal textiles from the sixteenth century onwards. The selection of pieces is meant to be representative, covering many different Italian, Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities in Europe and the