Gift of Eleanor Field and Margaret Klein

Id no. 1152.90, Judaica, Hebrew

circa 1934, Baja, Hungary

Subject(s):  Defiance-religious and cultural, Ritual, Purim

The olive wood case carries raised designs showing holy places in the Land of Israel, with Hebrew captions. Places depicted are the Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem, the Western Wall, and the Tomb of the Kings of the House of David in Jerusalem. The scroll was purchased in Palestine by Rabbi Ferencz Fabian, of Debrecen, Hungary, and given as a gift to his nephew, Rabbi Joszef Klein, leader of the Neolog community in Baja, Hungary. It was buried during the Holocaust and retreived c. 1949 by a family friend and returned to the Klein family.

During the Purim holiday Jews all over the world commemorate the victory of the Jews over Haman?s plot to destroy them, as recorded in the Book of Esther.