This collection of sixteen essays by Vivian Mann (regarded for her work at the Jewish Museum and for the master's program in Jewish art she established at the Jewish Theological Seminary) represents more than two decades of scholarly and curatorial investigations of Judaica, defined, in her words, and emphasizing its function, as “art used in conjunction with prayer and the rituals of Jewish life” (1). Mann, whose credentials are impeccable, is an expert and relentless sleuth with a consistent research methodology. She tracks down rabbinic responsa, records of ownership, and records of repairs and commissions; she makes relevant comparisons to objects and practices in Christian and Muslim settings; and she squares her findings, when possible, with an intimate understanding of the “biographies” of particular objects that have been analyzed in the process of acquisition or restoration at the museum. The essays she has selected, some new and some republications, cover three categories: Sephardic and Ashkenazic medieval ceremonial art (the largest and most comprehensive section), Judaica and Jewish Art in Muslim lands from the Middle Ages, and Jewish ceremonial art from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

Mann prefaces her collection with an introductory reflection called “Arts and Spirituality through the Rabbis' Eyes,” which was presented at Yeshiva University in 2000. While it does not serve to give the collection thematic cohesion, to my mind, it is one of her more provocative essays, with implications that expand beyond the histories of the particular objects she considers. Here, Mann investigates both sides of the medieval debate between rabbis who believed that art in liturgical spaces distracted worshipers from their prayer and those who believed that beautiful and adorned objects enhanced prayer, study, and ritual performance. In support of the latter claim, she cites the wonderfully pragmatic, even sassy responsum of Joseph Caro (this quotation appears twice in the volume; there are other redundancies, perhaps inevitable), who does not share Maimonides' conviction that images impede spirituality. Noting how beautification practices have become commonplace, even traditional in their own way in his era, Caro writes:

In the introduction and the essay “Between Worshipper and Wall: the Place of Art in Liturgical Spaces,” the debate over the permissibility of using figurative images to decorate Torah curtains is further explored. Were they problematic because they raised suspicions of idolatry (particularly if worshipers could be seen bowing in their direction)? Or were they problematic—and this was the more serious claim, the one that would persuade Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg, who possessed the artistic sensibility to distinguish readily between bowing before two-dimensional images (not so bad) and bowing before sculpted or raised imaged (troubling indeed)—primarily because imagery of any sort had the capacity to distract?

Mann notes that halakhic discussions about decorative Jewish ceremonial objects and decorations have been, for the most part, ex post facto: “they result from the creation of a work commissioned or made by a donor that is questioned by another member of the community” (3). Questions about the permissibility of a ritual object, or of artistic decoration as aspects of synagogue architecture were rarely raised before their creation. This does invite one to conjure up conspiring donors, artists, and artisans letting their imaginations go ever so slightly wild, with the hope that the innovation (made in accordance with their own gut feelings about taste, beauty, and Jewish appropriateness) might prompt sufficient pleasure and admiration. Couldn't the initial delight help to forestall the critical gaze of rabbinic authorities, at least until the object had been around long enough to acquire familiarity? And once a Torah curtain with figurative decoration or a stained glass window with snakes and lions was installed and its presence taken for granted, was it not essentially too late to undo the new practice of praying in the presence of decorated objects that had emerged? This possibility is an undercurrent explored in the essay “‘New’ Examples of Ceremonial Art from Medieval Ashkenaz,” in which Mann demonstrates how medieval Ashkenazic spice containers are adaptations of Christian censers. Here, she further illuminates the way that Jewish art becomes regularized through communal practice; she makes an observation that she graciously credits to the late medievalist, Michael Signer. There is a “strong sense of traditionalism in Jewish art that is part of a broader cultural attitude, the significant and shared character of custom” (48).

Throughout, Mann's book invites a reading that goes between and beyond the lines. A case in point is the essay “The Unknown Jewish Artists of the Middle Ages”: After clarifying that there were indeed Jewish artists in the Middle Ages (silversmiths and manuscript painters were artists, and should never have been classified among the shoemakers and tailors), Mann adds almost as an afterthought, “Another factor leading to the denial of Jewish participation in the arts was the linking of nationalism and art history in the nineteenth century. Without a country of their own, Jews were deemed to lack an artistic sensibility” (120). I would be curious to learn how Mann, herself, considers the cultural repercussions of such an assumption.

The essay “Toward an Iconography of Medieval Diaspora Synagogues” also characterizes the way Mann's work holds within it unanticipated implications for further research and intellectual consideration by those outside her certain readers: medieval scholars, professional collectors, and connoisseurs. Here, Mann demonstrates that Jews in Spain and Ashkenaz, like Christians, did indeed make architectural references (through shape, the placement of the Hanukkah lamp and the reader's desk, and dedicatory inscriptions) in their houses of worship to holy sites in Jerusalem. But one would be mistaken to conclude that Jews did so as Christians did, as a substitute for making pilgrimage or to express their active plans to travel to the Holy Land. Mann cites Maimonides, Juda Halevi, Nachmanides, Mordecai ben Hillel haKohen, and Menahem ben Solomon in support as she claims, “For medieval Jews in Europe, these symbols served to collapse the time and space separating them from the remains of the Temple in Jerusalem, without necessitating the hardship of a long and dangerous journey. They affirmed the value of the diaspora” (96). Might such an analysis not prompt scholars of contemporary synagogue architecture and decorative arts outside of Israel to investigate how current notions of Diaspora are being represented and experienced?

It is a pity that the collection is so costly, placing it well outside the range not just of most individuals, but of university libraries as well. Given that instructors can generally download single essays electronically, it should still be possible for students of ritual objects, Jewish art, and Jewish architecture to consult the particular works relevant to their studies and use them as springboards for their own research.