Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Cilly Kugelmann, Martina Lüdicke.

Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Cilly Kugelmann.

Berlin, Germany, 2014. 175 pp., illustrations: 72 col., 4 b&w, 25 × 20 cm. German.

9783835315761

Jüdisches Museum Berlin (24 October 2014–1 March 2015)

Religiously-motivated circumcision of boys in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, its perception in the modern age, and the recent controversy it has sparked (due to a court decision in Cologne, 2012, which declared the ritual to be “minor bodily injury” and thus illegal). Historical sources and other exhibits were brought to demonstrate the essential significance of this ritual in both Judaism and Islam, and in the process, emphasize the common religious foundation of the Abrahamic religions. Catalog essays address, among other topics: circumcision in Rabbinic tradition (Gerhard Langer), the mitzvah of circumcision (Maggie Anton), a Jewish response to the German circumcision debate (Alfred Bodenheimer), and psycho-analytic considerations of circumcision in Jewish tradition (Yigal Blumenberg). Basic listing. 70 items.

CEREMONIAL OBJECTS
CIRCUMCISION

Amulets
Bridal boxes/chests
Circumcision cups
Circumcision garments
Circumcision implements/objects
Circumcision pillows
Circumcision Torah Ark curtains
Elijah’s chair
Elijah’s chair, covers
Minhagim books
Prints, Jewish customs & ceremonies
Torah binders

Invitation to exhibition opening, folded card, 1 col. illus., 21 × 14.7 cm.