Work of Folk Art Embroidery – “Mizrach”, “Shiviti”, and “Yahrzeit” Wall Plaque with Ethical Passages from the ...

Work of Folk Art Embroidery – “Mizrach”, “Shiviti”, and “Yahrzeit” Wall Plaque with Ethical Passages from the “Ethics of the Fathers” – Krynica-Zdrój, 1926

Work of folk art embroidery in the form of a wall plaque, combining the main elements of "Mizrach", "Shiviti", and "Yahrzeit" wall plaques, along with "musar" (ethical) passages. Krentz (prob. Krenitz = Krynica-Zdrój), Poland, 5686 [1926].
Colored cotton-thread embroidery on linen fabric.
Rectangular cloth sheet embroidered with a wide variety of texts, vegetal patterns, and images of animals, including a pair of songbirds, a two-headed eagle (or vulture), a pair of rampant lions supporting a seven-branched menorah, and a pair of roosters. Embroidered frame with recurrent geometric pattern.
Hebrew inscriptions typical of "Mizrach" and "Shiviti" wall plaques appear at the top of the sheet: "Know before Whom you stand…", "Mizrach" ["East"], "From this side [comes] the spirit of life", and the eponymous verse of "Shiviti" ["I have set…"]: "I have set the Lord always before me" (Psalms 16:8). In among these inscriptions we find the teaching (in Hebrew, with minor errors) from the Mishnaic "Pirkei Avot" ("Ethics of the Fathers"): "Be as bold as a leopard, as swift as a vulture, quick as a gazelle, and courageous as a lion" (Avot 5:20), divided up into three segments and interspersed among the other elements: The words "as swift as a vulture" are embroidered next to the two-headed eagle (or vulture); "Be as bold as a leopard and courageous as a lion" is inscribed next to the pair of lions; and "quick as a gazelle" appears adjacent to the rooster on the right.
In the middle of the sheet is a menorah, a seven-branched candelabrum, positioned on the rooftop of an architectonic structure with two colorful columns. Inscribed inside this structure are the (Hebrew) words of the old Jewish maxim: "One frets over one’s loss of fortune, and worries not over the loss of one’s days; the fortune will be of no assistance, nor shall the lost days ever return". Underneath this, the year and place when and where the sheet was embroidered are given: "Year 5686, Krentz" [1926, prob. Krenitz = Krynica-Zdrój, Poland].
To the right and left of the columns, an "in memoriam" inscription appears in Yiddish, marking the "yahrzeit" (death anniversary) dates of the parents of the embroiderer: "Yahrzeit of the father, Aharon Moshe, is the 10th day of Iyar"; and "Yahrzeit of the mother, Sorah, is the 15th day of Cheshvan".
The small Polish town of Krenitz (Krynica-Zdrój), located just north of the Slovakian border, was home to a Jewish community, most of whose members were murdered in the Holocaust. In 1921, the town’s 1,023 Jews accounted for roughly half of its total population.

61X44.5 cm. Good condition. Professionally restored and sewn onto a cotton fabric for exhibition and preservation.

Reference and exhibitions:
1. The 'Shiviti – Menorah', dissertation by Esther Juhasz. [Jerusalem], the Hebrew University, 2004, p. 291 (Hebrew).
2. Reise an kein Ende der Welt. Vienna, Jüdisches Museum Wien, 2001, pp. 60-61.
3. In the Light of the Menorah: Story of Symbol. Jerusalem, the Israel Museum, 2011.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, 056.016.001.
This work of embroidery is documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item no. 39393.