Looking Back, Moving Forward: the Bernard Museum of Judaica 20th Anniversary, Temple Emanu-El, through September 3, 2017

Photographs by Corrado Serra.

“May 2017 marks the twentieth anniversary of the opening of Temple Emanu-El’s Herbert & Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica. How better to celebrate two decades’ worth of acclaimed exhibitions than with a best-of retrospective. The array of exhibitions that have been produced by our museum showcase the uniqueness of our collections and add to the scholarship within the field of Jewish museums. While selected items will be brought back on loan, many of the items in the exhibition come from our own collection, which often sparked the ideas for the exhibitions. Named ‘one of the best synagogue collections in the country,’ by to the New York Times, ‘it gives a lively chronicle not only of the temple and its congregation but of the broader reach of Jewish culture as well.'” — Bernard Museum

Installation view

To Have and To Hold: Decorated Jewish Marriage Contracts

Installation view

Kabbalah: Mysticism in Jewish Life

Right: Houses of Life: Jewish Cemeteries of Europe

Culture and Costume: Depictions of Jewish Dress Across Five Centuries

Left: Traveling the Holy Land Through the Stereoscope. Right: Kabbalah: Mysticism in Jewish Life

Installation view

Installation view

Mor Kfir Dybbuk Wedding Gown, Israel, 2013. Lace and silk chiffon, embroidered and braided. Courtesy of the designer

Back: Justify Your Existence: Graphic Posters from the Moldovan Family Collection

Left: Testimonial Scroll Case Jerusalem, 1928. Silver, set with semiprecious stones.  Bernard Museum of Judaica. Bequest of Judge Irving Lehman. Right: Ze’ev Raban and Meir Gur-Arie Bible with Silver Binding Jerusalem, after 1923. Silver and ivory. Bernard Museum of Judaica. Bequest of Judge Irving Lehman

Ze’ev Raban and Meir Gur-Arie Bible with Silver Binding, Jerusalem, after 1923. Silver and ivory. Bernard Museum of Judaica. Bequest of Judge Irving Lehman

Looking Back Moving Forward was curated by Warren Kelin, Curator of The Bernard Museum of Judaica.