Jewish Display Silver After the Age of Exploration

Although there is literature on the impact of the discovery of the Americas on the European silver supply and the production works in silver, no one has examined its impact on the commissioning of silver by hevrot, particularly the Hevrah Kaddisha, both for their own use and as donations to the synagogue. This paper will examine in what ways Jewish patronage was similar to those of guilds and Christian confraternities and it what ways they differed.

This presentation is for the following object(s):

• Beaker of the Burial Society of Worms. Johann Conrad Weiss (active 1699-1751), Jewish Museum in New York, ART305839
• Torah Crown, Berlin, 1802/03 (date of inscription), Jewish Museum in New York, ART65334