Pointing the Way: The Art of the Torah Pointer and Surviving Remnants
November 15, 2015 – February 28, 2016
Pointing the Way: The Art of the Torah Pointer
This exhibit comprises a remarkable collection of antique and contemporary Torah pointers, known by the Hebrew word yad, literally “hand” in English. Created by artists from different ages and cultures and of diverse materials these yads chronicle the timeless, universal aesthetic guide in reading the Torah.
Surviving Remnants – Photography by Elizabeth Collings of Damaged Crimean Torah Scrolls
In 1941, the Nazi army captured the Crimean city of Simferopol. Simferopol had been the center of Jewish life in Crimea for centuries and by the Second World War approximately 23,000 Jews lived there.
Within the year they massacred more than 14,000 residents – mostly Jews, Russians and Roma. The photographs in this exhibit trace several Simferopol Torah scrolls and their history including their condition after a 1990 medical delegation from Oregon returned with them from the Soviet Union. more>>