The Stories of Tapestries and Books: Exploring the Past through Heritage Objects

The project had three main goals: to restore hand-embroidered tapestries in particular deterioration and clean and care for others, providing them with appropriate and safe storage facilities; to clean, catalogue, and properly store the books, primarily siddurim, from the Jewish community that had been left in the women’s balcony (functioning as a genizah); and to accomplish these actions through the use of community involvement, where possible, while also incorporating the items of local Jewish heritage into our ongoing outreach and cultural work.

All of these objectives have been met: six large, handmade and embroidered textiles (the chuppah and five curtains probably used for the aron kodesh) exhibiting considerable deterioration were restored by experts at the Brukenthal Museum. Fifteen embroidered tallis and tefillin bags in relatively good condition have been catalogued and cleaned and cared for by our own staff.