Objects Tell Stories: Yom Kippur in the Jewish Museum Collection
Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins today at sundown. The holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar, it marks the end of the Days of Awe, a ten-day cycle during the Jewish High Holidays that begins with the Jewish New Year at Rosh Hashanah. The holiday is observed with a day of fasting and prayer as penance for past sins. The shofar — an ancient instrument crafted from a ram’s horn — blasts its plaintive wail tomorrow at sunset to signal the closing of Yom Kippur, and an end to the day-long fast.
Among the many ritual objects in our collection, one shofar traveled an especially unusual journey to find itself at the Jewish Museum. In 1965 at what is now John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, land was leased by an interfaith effort to establish Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish houses of worship at the aviation hub. When it opened in 1967, the synagogue and other chapels were heralded by then Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey as “a symbol of the essential unity of our great religions, and a pledge of their determination to make this a better nation and a better world.”
The individual chapels were shuttered in 1988 by the Port Authority and incorporated as smaller spaces into Terminal 4 at JFK where they still function as a respite for travelers of faith. When the chapels were demolished, a host of artifacts brought to the synagogue by Jewish communities around the world needed a home. Amongst the objects that made their way into our collection was this shofar from India, donated by the Cochin Jews in Southern India. Its twisted form is typical of shofars from North Africa and the Middle East, but the sound it emits is pure and piercingly straight.
Shofars are made from the horn of varying species of ram, which affects both the size and shape of the shofar, and the sounds they produce. This German shofar from the Jewish Museum collection is bent rather than twisted, derived from a European breed of ram. A marble burial plaque in our collection features a depiction of a shofar alongside a Hanukkah lamp. Dating back to the 4th century, the plaque evinces the long history of the shofar as a key ritual object in Jewish culture.
In observance of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Museum galleries, shops, and Russ & Daughters will close early on Tuesday, October 11 at 2 pm and will be closed on Wednesday, October 12. Learn more about Yom Kippur and the Jewish holidays with our online resources for educators. Browse our selection of shofars for purchase at The Jewish Museum Shops.
From all of us at the Jewish Museum, may your coming year contain great journeys and joyful adventures.
