Small Torah scroll [presumably Germany, 18th century]. Rolled up over a pair of wooden "atzei hayyim" (Torah scroll handles) ornamented with engraved silver, and surmounted by silver Torah finials. Frankfurt am Main, Germany, mid-18th century, [ca. 1740-50].
Ink on vellum; wood; silver, repoussé and engraved (marked, with maker’s mark and German city mark).
Small Torah scroll, scribed in Ashkenazi script typical of the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century.
Small Torah scroll rolled up over a pair of wooden "atzei hayyim" (Torah scroll handles) featuring several types of decoration. The upper parts are coated in silver bearing vegetal patterns and marked with the city mark of Frankfurt am Main as well as the maker’s mark, "Jost Leschhorn" (Meister 1731; Rosenberg 2060); these parts are surmounted by crown-like ornaments (unmarked, not original), screwed on. The lower parts, adjacent to the handles, consist of two bands of silver fastened to the wooden discs. They are inscribed with a dedicatory inscription, dated Hebrew year 5630 (1869-70) which states that the scroll was dedicated by the parents of the young man Moshe Löwenstein on the occasion of his bar mitzvah: "Generously donated by Avraham Dov, son of the honorable Uri Shraga Löwenstein and his wife Mme. Yulka / on the day his son Moshe advanced to 13 years [of age] on the Holy Sabbath day, the 1st day of Passover 5630…" Based on this inscription, it appears the Torah scroll was actually re-dedicated in 1870, and the above dedication was added on the occasion of the bar mitzvah.
It seems likely that the Avraham Löwenstein who dedicated the Torah scroll in 1870 was the brother of Markus Löwenstein of Frankfurt; in 1849, the two brothers Abraham and Markus Löwenstein established the Gebrüder Löwenstein trading house for antiques and historical artifacts in Frankfurt am Main – a fact which may explain how he managed to obtain an 18th century Torah scroll.
Only a handful of works of Judaica created by the silversmith Jost Leschhorn – a member of a family of silversmiths active in Frankfurt throughout the 18th century – are known to be extant. His documented works include two fragments of Torah finials – consisting only of the upper ornaments – which are part of the collection of the Musée de Cluny, Paris. It is reasonable to assume these fragments represent the upper ornaments missing from the Torah scroll handles here. They are made to look like the upper section of a belltower, they have a square base, spiraling columns, and a perforated dome from which a dangling bell is suspended. These decorative items, whose provenance is the M. Strauss-Rothschild Collection, are kept today in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris (mahJ; item nos. D.98.04.140.CL, D.98.04.141.CL, formerly from the collection of the Musée de Cluny, Paris, item nos. Cl. 12271 a, b).
For comparison, see a very similar pair of 18th century Torah scroll handles with finials from Frankfurt am Main housed in The Jewish Museum, New York, item no. JM 42-52a-b (formerly from the collection of the Jüdische Museum der Stadt, Frankfurt am Main).

Height of parchment: 20 cm. Height of Torah scroll handles: 43 cm. Height of silver coating, incl. crowns: 13.5 cm; diameter: 7 cm. Good condition. The crown-like ornaments surmounting the Torah scroll handles represent a later addition, as explained above. New Torah mantle and Torah belt. Fissures and fractures to lower wooden discs.

Reference and exhibitions:
1. Eretz Moledet, edited by Michael Bar-Zohar. Jerusalem, 2004, p. 35 (Hebrew).
2. Collection de Strauss, Description des Objets d'art Religieux Hébraïques, Poissy, 1878, no. 41.
3. Catalogue raisonné de la collection juive du Musée de Cluny, edited by Victor Klagsbald, Paris, 1981, nos. 140-141.
4. The Golden Age of Jewish Ceremonial Art in Frankfurt: Metalwork of the Eighteenth Century, edited by Vivian B. Mann. Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, no. 31 (1986), pp. 401-402.
5. Crowning Glory, by Rafi Grafman, New York, 1996, items 254 and 17; p. 49.
6. L'art en fête: Roch ha-Chana, Yom Kippour, Souccot, Hochana Rabba et Sim'hat Torah, by Michele Fingher. Jerusalem, 2012, p. 67.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, No. 044.012.005.
These Torah scroll handles are documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item 40920.

Torah shield, "From the Synagogue of Rashkov Wallihish" (Hebrew inscription engraved on verso). Rashkov, Podolia region / Wallachia, today the Transnistria region, Moldova, dedicatory inscription dated 5581 [1821].
Silver (unmarked), repoussé, pierced, and engraved; gilt; glass stone.
Ornate Torah shield, representing a tradition of art, craftsmanship, and silversmithing characteristic of sacred Jewish objects from the southern Polish region of Galicia. Its basic structure includes a thick, gilt back plate, mostly blank, to which a silver plate – pierced with rich vegetal patterns and images of animals – is attached with screws. The images pierced onto the silver surface layer include leaves, branches, large flowers and various animals: a two-headed eagle with a bulging red glass stone in the middle; other birds; at the center, a pair of rampant lions flanking a Torah ark; a pair of deer and a unicorn flank the dome-like ornament at the bottom. Screwed onto the shield, near the top, is a large convex ornament in high relief, also in gilt, in the shape of a crown, adorned, once again, with a pair of deer. The shield's design is inspired by the design of East-European carved-wood Torah Arks, and the animal-themed ornamentation (most of all the unicorn) is typical of Galician craftsmanship.
Stamped directly onto the back plate, behind the silver plate forming the surface, are two ornaments bulging frontward in high relief; the one in the center is in the form of a Torah scroll covered by a Torah mantle bearing a Star of David; the other, beneath this, is dome-shaped and superimposed over a disk which can be rotated to show the correct (Hebrew) inscription for any particular holiday: "Rosh HaShanah", "HaSukkot", "HaMatzot" ("Passover"), and "HaShavu’ot" (with the latter inscription broken up into two separate lines); such rotating discs are not commonly found in Galician craftsmanship, and the design of this feature in the present Torah shield is more likely inspired by Moldavian-Romanian traditions.
The mantled Torah scroll is concealed inside the Torah ark, and can be revealed by opening the ark’s two doors – shaped like the Two Tablets of the Law, with the abbreviated Ten Commandments engraved upon them – by means of a tiny door handle.
An inscription on the back plate, on verso, reads as follows: "From the Synagogue of Rashkov Wallihish"; "Wallihish" is most likely a reference to the region of Wallachia which constituted an independent Romanian principality until 1859, when it united with Moldova to form the "Romanian United Principalities".

Height: 29 cm. Width: 22.5 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes.

For comparison, see: Crowning Glory: Silver Torah Ornaments of the Jewish Museum, New York, by Rafi Grafman. Boston, David R. Godine, 1996, Nos. 186-92.
Exhibition: Reise an kein Ende der Welt. Vienna, Jüdisches Museum Wien, 2001, pp. 60-61.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, 051.001.039.
This Torah shield is documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item no. 37241.

Torah pointer, with a plaque bearing a dedicatory inscription. Shanghai, China, [first decades of the 20th century].
Silver (marked), cast, lathed, and engraved (pointer with maker’s mark of Zee Sung, who was active in Shanghai in the first half of the 20th century; dedicatory inscription marked with Chinese mark).
Long, slender Torah pointer, gently tapering toward end point. Most of the length of the shaft is encircled by pairs of incised bands reminiscent of the bands on a bamboo reed; such a decorative pattern also appears on the handles of Esther scroll cases from China. Suspended from the loop at the handle end of the pointer is a plaque, shaped like a shield, with a pattern of branches and leaves, and with an engraved inscription in the middle: "For the eternal rest of … Yosef Rahamim Eliyahu, may he find rest in Eden". In all likelihood, this Torah pointer was used by members of one of the Iraqi-Jewish communities of the Far East – either China, India, or Burma.

Length of pointer: 30.5 cm. Dedicatory plaque: 5X6 cm. Good condition.

Reference: Haggadah de Pessah, En hommage aux Juifs d'Inde. Lod, 2010, pp. 82-83.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, 052.001.117.
This pair of Torah finials is documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item no. 37277.

Kindling goblet or memorial lamp for the synagogue (known locally as "kas or "kas di-se’il"). Morocco, [ca. 1900].
Brass, cast, engraved, and chased; painted glass.
Large memorial lamp dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, also known as the "Abir Yaakov" – one of the patriarchs of the renowned Abuhatzeira rabbinic dynasty, and among the greatest of Moroccan Jewish spiritual leaders. Suspended from an ornament in the form of a "hamsa", with the thumb pointing sideways, bearing vegetal and geometric decorative patterns alongside the following inscription: "To the transcendence of the soul of the great rabbi of the boldest / and greatest of the holy righteous / … the divine kabbalist / the Great Light, our honored teacher, Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, his memory till life in the World to Come, may his virtue protect us, Amen, may it be Thy will, Amen". The glass oil pitcher (added later) is decorated (painted) and is suspended from five chains.
Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, commonly referred to as the "Abir Yaakov" (1806-1880), gained recognition at an early age as being a prodigy, a genius, a holy man and kabbalist. As Chief Rabbi and Head of the Rabbinical Court of the Tafilalt region of Morocco (home to the main Jewish community of the Ziz River Valley of southern Morocco), he was regarded as the greatest of halakhic adjudicators of his generation, and through his halakhic responsa, he maintained contacts and exerted influence over the greatest of rabbis of North Africa. He was the subject of numerous miraculous tales; for instance, it has been told that he bore witness to a revelation of the Prophet Elijah. The "Abir Yaakov" was also highly regarded by Muslim Moroccans, who reverently referred to him as "Al-Hazan al-Kabir" – "The Great Rabbi". Yaakov Abuhatzeira passed away en route to the Land of Israel, and was interred in the city of Damanhour, Egypt. Dozens of "piyutim" (liturgical poems) – some of them popular among Jews of Moroccan origin till this day – were composed in his honor and in his memory. The famous portrait of him, seated cross-legged with a holy book in his hands, appeared on walls of Jewish homes all over Morocco, and it continues to do so today in numerous homes of Israelis of Moroccan origin. His sons and grandsons were similarly renowned for their saintliness and erudition; the most famous of them were Rabbi Israel Abuhatzeira (the so-called "Baba Sali") and his brother Rabbi Yitzhak (the so-called "Baba Haki"); Rabbi Meir ("Baba Meir"); and dozens of other well-known rabbinical figures belonging to the Abuhatzeira clan.

Height (including glass oil pitcher): approx. 84 cm. Diameter of glass oil pitcher: 21.5 cm. Overall good condition.

Exhibitions:
1. Jewish Life in Morocco, edited by Aviva Müller-Lancet. Jerusalem, the Israel Museum, 1983, pp. 40-45 (Hebrew).
2. Great Jewish Treasures, by Moshe Bamberger. New York, 2015, pp. 56-57.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, 118.002.005.