Museum of Jewish Arts is Planned in Cincinnati

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The world famous collection of Jewish art objects, recently purchased in Germany for the Hebrew Union College by Adolph S. Oko, librarian of the institution, has arrived in Cincinnati.

The works will not be placed on exhibit until a proposed museum, the first Jewish museum in America, can be built. While no definite plans for acquiring such a building have yet been formulated, Mr. Oko intimates that it will become a reality within a comparatively short time.

The museum will serve purposes other than aiding in archaeological investigation. The historical and cultural objects will be arranged in rooms according to countries and subjects, and in keeping with a color scheme that will be understood by and appeal to the general public.

A museum of this nature will have a far-reaching influence, Mr. Oko believes. It will awaken an artistic consciousness in the Jews as a people, he says. It will stimulate the purchase and collection of Jewish art objects, and will provide the incentive for Jewish artists to work with the inspiration of their heritage.

It also will effect an extensive revision in the field of Jewish education, Mr. Oko stated. Items in the collection will throw light on hitherto unknown phases of Jewish religious, cultural and racial history. The illuminations contained within many of the manuscripts will enable the publication of attractive text books.

The discovery of a distinct Jewish art is accredited by Mr. Oko to a non-Jew.

“Thirty-five years ago, Heinrich Frauberger, director of the Dusseldorf Museum of Crafts and Arts, having received a clue to the existence of Jewish cultural objects, organized a society for the study and conversation of Jewish antiquities,” he related. “At the same time, S. Kirschstein, a traveling salesman from Berlin, prompted by an ardent Jewish spirit, made a practice of collecting interesting Judaica wherever he went. His collection represented the graphic arts.

“Fifteen years ago Kirschstein bought Frauberger’s works, and the combined collection is this which was purchased for the Hebrew Union College, the rarest in the world. It was offered for sale last summer. I immediately notified Ben Selling of Portland. Ore, who two years before had given $50,000 for the purchase of Chinese manuscripts, and he pledged $25,000. Julius Rosenwald then offered an additional $25,000, on condition that I could raise the remainder of a necessary $75,000 fund within five days. I raised $13,000 among a number of friends of the Hebrew Union College in Pittsburgh, and then Adolph S. Ochs and Ludwig Vogelstein pledged the rest.”

An example of how objects in the collection will give intimate pictures of Jews of the past, is contained within the “wimpein.” Torah hands, 600 of which are included the collection of 6,174 pieces. They are gorgeously and artistically embroidered, and with thread, mothers told of their wishes for their sons, when the latter carried the “wimpein” to their Bar Mitzvahs. The bands reveal the minds and souls of Jewish mothers of antiquity, knowledge that will give life to our history, he stated.

A romantic story is told by one Jewish woman of the past in gold embroidery upon a Torah mantle, her gift to the synagogue. She said that the cloth was from a wedding dress worn by her ancestors for six generations.

“It is seen that the art of the Jews followed motifs, such as the Renaisance influence, pointing to the fact that the Jews have had a conscious art,” Mr. Oko said.

The collection includes autographs of famous potentates of history, Frederick the Great and others, affixed to edicts issued to Jews

Since the announcement of the purchase of the collection. Oko has received inquiries from scholars and interested persons everywhere. Thus it is seen that only an imeptus was needed to awaken a public interest in Jewish culture, the librarian states.