Ceremonial Hall (The)

Description:

• The Jewish Burial Society, or Chevrah Kaddishah, (founded in 1564), used this neo-Romanesque building adjoining the Old Jewish Cemetery during the early twentieth century. Today it houses an exhibition by the Jewish Museum on medicine, death and burial. The great rabbi and philosopher Judah Loew helped found the society and it once counted many leading lights of the community among its members. The displays include some of the oldest tombstones from the Old Cemetery, china and silver used at society banquets, objects used in the ritual cleansing and dressing of the dead and a series of eighteenth-century paintings showing the society's many functions.
• © wcities.com 2013