The celebration of the 60th year of the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia will be inaugurated with the first public exhibit ever assembled on the history and practice of charity, Abraham L. Freedman, Federation president, announced today.
The exhibit, which will be held in September, will show the development of the Jewish ideal of “Tzedaka”–a Hebrew word meaning both charity and justice–from the origin of the Jewish people and religion through the founding of American Jewish communal services in Colonial Philadelphia, and up to the present day. It will contain many unique historic and archaeological objects, loaned by institutions and private individuals, some of which will be on public view for the first time. Included will be ancient pictures, sculpture, jewelry, precious illuminated manuscripts, Torahs, cuneiform writings on clay tablets, parchments, and papyrus scrolls.
The exhibition will be gathered from many world renowned museums and private collections including the University of Pennsylvania Museum, the Oriental Institute of Chicago. The Jewish Museum in New York. The Brooklyn Museum, Yale University and the archives of Philadelphia congregations and Jewish institutions, which are among the oldest in the country. The origin of the ideals of human liberty, human rights, and man’s concern for the welfare of his fellow-man will be shown in archaeological exhibits from Mesopotamia where the patriarch, Abraham, originated.
Samuel H. Daroff is honorary chairman of the exhibit planning committee. Prof. Ephraim A. Speiser, chairman of the department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Pierre Delougaz, curator of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, are in charge of organizing the section devoted to ancient times.
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