Browse Items (18 total)

This ark belonged to Dr. David Nemtzow, who was both a chazan and shofar blower for a Havurah Simchah group he led, which met at Touro Synagogue for many years and then moved to Middletown. It is on loan from the Rhode Island Jewish Museum, which…

This cone of sugar, also called a sugar loaf, is an example of how sugar was refined and packaged well into the 20 th century. It was often wrapped in blue paper (not this one) and sealed with red wax (as this one is). The size of this loaf means the…

The word “tzedakah” comes from the Hebrew word “tzedek”, meaning righteousness or justice. This emphasizes the importance of making the world a more just place by giving money to various organizations. In the English Standard translation of…

This is one of several unique Yahrzeit Calendars in our collection. The Jewish Museum in New York has no example like this; theirs are all stylized, large, one page calendars and memorials, usually for 20 years. Temples and funeral homes, as well…

The Montefiore Lodge Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Association of Providence, Rhode Island was the first Jewish women’s society in Providence. It was organized by Rabbi David Voorsanger October 23,1877 and received its charter from the State Legislature…

Because in the late 1800s and early 1900s there was no Jewish hospital, the women of the Miriam Society No. 1 (formerly the Miriam Lodge) raised money and brought Kosher food to the Jewish patients at Rhode Island Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital.…

“In 1875 a group of immigrant Jews in the North End of Providence banded together as the Chevrah Bnai Zion (Brotherhood of the Sons of Zion) and applied for a State charter in the name of the Sons of Zion which was granted in the same year. The…

Archibald Silverman, born on March 5, 1880 in Russia, immigrated to the United States 10 years later. In 1897, along with his brother Charles, he started Silverman Brothers, a jewelry manufacturing company in Providence on Eddy Street. He began with…

Scherenschnitte is the art of cutting paper into designs. The German word means “paper cutting” or “paper snipping.” The practice of paper cutting actually began in China and made its way, as a folk art form, to Germany in the 16th Century. It was…

During the immigration boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various agencies sold steamship tickets to immigrants and their families, arranging for passage to and from America. As transatlantic migration grew, steamship lines relied on…