A Chol HaMoed Visit Highlights the Timeless Legacy of Jewish Art, Faith, and Survival Across the Ages
On Sunday of Chol HaMoed Sukkos, my husband and I joined a fascinating Judaica tour in one of the most unexpected places: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum is not known for its Jewish collections, but we signed up for a special Chol HaMoed tour with curator Lauren Perlman.
We met by the Pharaoh statue in the museum’s main lobby, a small group of frum Jews navigating through throngs of visitors speaking French, Chinese, and countless other languages. It was remarkable to see how many people from around the world flock to this iconic museum.
Lauren began by explaining that the story of the Jewish people is woven through every era of history.
Our first stop was a beautifully handwritten siddur displayed in a dimly lit glass case to protect its delicate ink. The colorful illustrations and detailed script dated back over 700 years to Germany. It is currently on a five-and-a-half-year loan to the museum, and every three months, a page must be carefully turned – by hand – to prevent deterioration. Lauren marveled that this siddur, written during the Crusades, preserved the very t’filos we still recite today.
Next, we examined a case filled with magnificent Judaica: two large silver rimonim from 1775, a chanukiah, and a silver cup from Ukraine inscribed with the name Yissachar Yehudah HaLevi and surrounded by the names of Yaakov’s sons. These were the museum’s first Judaica acquisitions. Also on display were ornate silver covers for a Tanach and machzor, crafted by non-Jews, since Jews were barred from guild work at the time. A new addition – a fish-shaped spice box – contained a surprise: inside its mouth, the Ten Commandments were engraved.
We then entered a room filled mostly with Christian-themed art, where one painting stood out: a 16th-century Italian work showing a man holding a tablet inscribed with Hebrew words spelling Toras Moshe Emes. The painting was placed beside a beautifully illustrated handwritten Mishneh Torah from 1457 Italy, where many Spanish Jews had resettled after the Expulsion.
On the way to the next gallery, a limestone statue caught our eye: Moshe Rabbeinu holding the Tablets, carved in 1170 in France.
Lauren led us to another glass case containing a fragment of a Roman glass bowl adorned with two menorahs, a shofar, an esrog, a lulav, an aron kodesh, and Torah scrolls. One of the visible inscriptions read “BIBAS” – a name that stirred emotion, recalling Shiri Bibas and her children, Ariel and Kfir, murdered by Hamas. We learned that in Latin, bibas means “to drink, to live, to rejoice” – L’chayim!
Lauren concluded by reminding us that throughout the Crusades, ghettos, and the destruction of both Temples, our people endured with emunah. “We are part of an unbroken chain,” she said.
After the formal tour ended, my husband and I wandered on our own, discovering more Jewish motifs: engraved silver plates depicting scenes from Tanach – David anointed by Shmuel, fighting Goliath, and being rewarded by Shaul.
Upstairs, in the European Masters section, we found The Triumph of Mordechai by Jean François de Troy (1736), along with paintings of Moshe at the Burning Bush and Yosef interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams.
We realized there are likely many more hidden Jewish connections throughout the museum. The greatest lesson we took away was the enduring nature of our people. Civilizations rise and vanish, yet our siddurim, rimonim, and chanukiyos remain not as relics, but as living parts of our heritage and future.
As Mark Twain wrote of the Jewish people:
“He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all ages, and has done it with his hands tied behind him… The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away… The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was… All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
