TO BUY OR TO SEW — PERHAPS DIY TUESDAY?
Spending lots of money looking for a holiday gift? Consider a sewing machine! This tin advertisement for a Singer sewing machine persuaded women of the early 20th century to create their own garments in order to stretch the family budget. Just in case you are wondering, the Singer sewing machine company is still functioning today! How do we stretch the family budget in the 21st century?
Advertisement for a Sewing Machine. Early 20th century. Collection of Yeshiva University Museum (1998.604). Gift of the Jesselson Family.
WILL WE HAVE ENOUGH SNOW TO PLAY THIS YEAR? ONLY TIME WILL TELL. WINTER IS HERE!
Time to bundle up and enjoy the beauty of snow covered landscapes. Depicted here are three young children playing in the snow with an orange ball.Drawing.Three Children in Snowsuits. Joseph Hirsch. 1941. Collection of the Yeshiva University Museum.
Read the complete article at http://bit.ly/RUMpW2
Shabbat is designed to be a day of rest, relaxation, and communal prayer. Due to halakhic restrictions on their carrying items from one place to another, however, observant Jews can become prisoners in their own homes. The rabbis, therefore, wherever they could, came up with a way to circumvent this issue: the eruv. The word literally means “mixture”; and views on the eruv are themselves mixed and hotly debated. The Yeshiva University Museum now has an exhibition devoted to the eruv called, “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond.” The museum launched the exhibition with a day-long symposium reflecting the debates that the eruv has occasioned.
… Read the complete article at http://bit.ly/RUMpW2
TAKE THE SUBWAY - YUM IS OPEN!
Back after a week hiatus, YU Museum is ready for visitors at 15 W 16th St. Even if your train line is still on the fritz, there’re tons of paths for finding your way here.
One way you could have come about a century ago was on the elevated train, which was dismantled over 60 years ago. This postcard, which appears in YUM’s current exhibition It’s a Thin Line, shows the 2nd and 3rd Avenue elevated train lines coming together at Chatham Square. At this time, the 3rd Avenue El was the western boarder of the city’s Eruv.
What’s and Eruv? Find out in the exhibition: It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond
Image: Postcard of New York City Double Deck Elevated Railroad Train at Chatham Square, New York, 1909, Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
IT’S A THIN LINE: THE ERUV AND JEWISH SPACE IN NEW YORK AND BEYOND
Opening October 29th, 2012
Learn more at http://yumuseum.tumblr.com/ItsAThinLine
From “The Daily Show” to Rabbinic and City Hall Debates, Eruvs Still Generate Controversy. It divides private and public, sacred and secular, work and Sabbath. And you might live in one without knowing it. With its main focus on New York City, New Jersey, and the surrounding communities, the exhibition also provides a vivid picture of local urban history through the stories of individual communities, religious figures and debates.
The eruv is one of the most fascinating, though little understood and sometimes controversial concepts in Jewish life. It is not just a concept. It’s also a physical creation that powerfully affects the lives of observant Jews. Without an eruv, parents couldn’t even carry their children on the Sabbath. It’s a Thin Line traces the history of the eruv and its adaptation into New York’s urban environment, and raises provocative questions. With 130 artifacts spanning over five centuries, It’s a Thin Line vividly illustrates how an ancient Biblical precept has been creatively interpreted and applied – especially in and around New York City. Objects range from some of the first Hebrew books ever printed to century-old images of New York life to contemporary tools and recent eruv artifacts to eruv-themed works by contemporary artists.
Rosh Hashanah- a great time to make political jokes? In this 20th century post card, the head of the rooster used for kapparot is substituted by the face of Tsar Nicholas of Russia. Apart from celebrating the Jewish new year, this card is an alert to any anti-semitic leader that this is where he/she might end up!
Rosh Hashanah postcard. YU Museum Collection. Early 20th century (1996.286)
THEY DONT MAKE THEM LIKE THEY USED TO
These different Rosh Hashanah greetings attest to the utopian characteristics Jews around the globe assigned to the United States. Were they just made to greet American Jews? The largest of these greetings was actually made in Germany, which might indicate that they were not just used for an American Jewish audience.
Shana Tova to all !
Three Rosh Hashanah greeting cards dating from the 1920s and 1930s. Collection of YU Museum.
Check out this HuffPo article featuring the works of Ruth Abrams, an artist that went from forgotten to remembered.
WASHED AWAY - FROM RUTH ABRAMS
This untitled painting by Ruth Abrams could very well be titled “Washed Away.” The somber color palette Abrams used gives this work an overall dispiriting feeling. The shores of the ocean seem to wash away the tradgedies, the wars, the stories, the history…
With a few dabs of color, Abrams draws attention to a couple lying together on the soil, as well as what seems to be school girls lined up next to a tree. Possibly moments in a person’s history that are never washed away?
Untitled, Ruth Davidson Abrams. 1947 oil on canvas. Collection of Yeshiva University Museum. Gift of the Estate of Ruth Abrams. (2006.069)
YU Museum creates new ways to experience and interpret Jewish art and history. It is a source for new ideas and perspectives on historic events and cultural phenomena effecting everyone.
Visit YU Museum’s exhibitions and programs! They open the eyes of audiences to new perspectives on Jewish culture, historic events and cultural phenomena. They reveal the vitality and resonance of present-day art on Jewish themes, and reflect and re-interpret millennia of Jewish experiences for the present. Visit: @15 w16th st, NYC
Visit YU Museum @ www.YUMuseum.org
