WHO IS CARRYING THE TEMPLE MENORAH? A JEWISH COUNTER-NARRATIVE OF THE ARCH OF TITUS SPOLIA PANEL

My review of a 2017 exhibition in Rome, with images of the installation. Images 10 (2018)

Migrations in Visual Art, Jelena Erdeljan (ed) University of Belgrade, Faculty of Arts Martin Germ (ed) University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts Ivana Prijatelj Pavičić (ed) University of Split Marina Vicelja Matijašić (ed) University of Rijeka, 2018

The Jewish relation to representational art is determined mostly by the Second Commandment , which states: " You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them... " (Ex 20:4) As science has observed, the commandment has not always been honoured to the letter and its understanding has been changing depending on the actual circumstances a community is facing. At times of political crises and religious pressures, resistance to figural representations grew. A period from the late 1 st to the 7 th century CE, particularly from the 3 rd to the first half of the 7 th century is an exception. Actually, when coming into contact with Greco-Roman civilisation and under the influence of cultural and religious syncretism, quite characteristic for the period of Late Antiquity, the Jewish culture became more open to representational arts. On the walls in synagogues and catacombs there are figural images, of which the most representational ones are the scenes from the Old Testament, discovered in the Dura-Europos synagogue. However, many more non-figural objects have been preserved , mostly architectural structures and religious objects resembling the Jerusa-lem Temple. A repeated image of the menorah stands out, occurring on grave stones, synagogue mosaic floors, catacomb walls, lamps and objects of applied art found not only in Palestine but all over the Jewish diaspora. The seven-branched lampstand is designed according to the God's instructions for the service in the Tabernacle or King Solomon's Temple. When the menorah was taken to Rome after the destruction of the Second Temple, it became an expression of an aspiration for a renewal of the Jerusalem Temple and a symbol of Jewish identity. The paper examines and analyzes a motif that evolved from a Divine prototype to an image of an object which stands in the Jerusalem temple, to representation that becomes not only a substitute for the Temple, but also a common symbol of a nation in the diaspora. We will try to connect the evolution of the motif with the migration of the Jews, after the fall of the Second Temple and to show that the occurrence of the motif in different parts of the Mediterranean and/or the Balkans confirms the presence of a Jewish community.

Material Religion, 2017

2009

In the m ost books and handbooks about the R om an art, it appears a fam ous pho to o f the relief copied on the Arch o f T itus.1 The picture shows a procession’s scene o f the trium ph o f the Caesar T itus in 71 A.D., after the victorious war in Judea and capturing Jerusalem . In the middle part o f it, there arc imagined Rom an soldiers crowned with wreaths and probably some Jewish prisoners carrying the Tem ple’s m enorah, other sacral equipm ents and tablets. In the central part o f the relief, it is carved a huge scvcn-branchcd candlestick carried on the stretchers (ferculum). Its two-steps base, hexagonal or octagonal in form, is decorated with various Hellenistic and R om an symbols, as “dragon” (capricornus), griffins and lions on the lower base’s step and two eagles with a garland, as well as “sea creatures” (hippokampos) on a higher level o f the m enorah’s basis.2

2019

This article sets the historical context for Mendelssohn's polemic against the Arch of Titus menorah that appears in the Biur, placing this work within his larger project of both Emancipation and protecting rabbinic authority. It is the first in a line of rabbis who responded negatively to the Arch menorah, including Isaac Herzog and M. M. Schneerson. This essay appeared in the Zion Zevit Festschrift.

The Arch of Titus: From Jerusalem to Rome— and Back, 2021

This article discusses the midern Jewish ritual of pilgrimage to the Arch of Titus, snd its continuing attraction.

AJS Review, 2019

The following group of essays emerged out of a seminar held at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in 2015. As section heads of Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity and Rabbinic Literature and Culture, tasked to think about how to address gaps in our fields, we recognized that despite a large amount of scholarship available on the Jerusalem Temple and its priesthood, there was a dearth of cross-disciplinary scholarly exchange, especially between ancient Jewish historians and those of us who engage in literary analysis of rabbinic sources. As a result, our divisions joined together to create “The Jerusalem Temple in History, Memory, and Ritual,” taking advantage of the “seminar” format at the conference. Twelve scholars, each working with different source material and employing different methodological approaches, participated.