NEW BOOK: JEWRY REFLECTED, REFRACTED AND RECORDED

The curatorial question, for the collector as well as for the museologist, is how to distinguish, characterize, and organize Jewish medals and their kindred forms. Earlier definitions and categorizations tended to be strict, requiring selected items to have been made by Jews or to feature explicitly Jewish content. Even when adopting such seemingly precise criteria, however, there remain challenging questions of how actually to define the terms Jew and Jewish and thus how ultimately to limit what fits and what to select within these categories. Such questions have been much debated subjects about which reasonable persons will differ; the present introductory essay is not the place to resolve such questions. Suffice it here to say that the modern museological tendency, and the choices made by this observer for this exhibition, favor a generous approach, inclusive of items that may not meet the strictest of definitions, but which offer evidence for contextualizing and thus understanding Jewish history in the broadest sense. As an example, with respect to text, the presence of Hebrew might have seemed to prove Jewish origin irrespective of the author, while with respect to imagery the mere presence of Jesus might be seen automatically to disqualify a specimen. However, Hebrew in Christian context surely shows significant Jewish influence, if not immediate presence, and the use of Hebrew texts in connection with Christian images once again provides evidence of the historical linkage between the two biblical religions.

The observer of the materials contained in the present exhibition can therefore find a remarkably wide range of numismatic evidence for Jewish history both among Jews and of their interactive presence within surrounding societies. These artifacts reflect, refract, and record Jewish experience, but in addition they were often also active participants in that history, agents that facilitated actual functions of Jewish communal life and have survived to provide some tangible connection for us to Jewry's past. Jews are known as Shearit Hapletah, a small group, survivors of much adversity, but they are also the progenitors of the Abrahamic religions which have flourished throughout Europe and Western Asia The coins and medals that emerged and survived in these places still retain the impression made by Jews upon society throughout their history.

To read the complete book, see:
Jewry Reflected, Refracted and Recorded on Medals (https://www.academia.edu/129879055/Jewry_Reflected_Refracted
_and_Recorded_on_Medals)

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