A Joyous Occasion in Honour of Heaven

Presented by: Faigy Schiff

Beyond the joy of studying Torah and fulfilling mitzvahs (commandments) every day, a Jew’s life revolves around joy. Whether it’s personal joy: from circumcision and redemption of a firstborn son, bar/bat mitzvahs, engagements, weddings, sheva brachot (festive meals for a week after a wedding in which 7 blessings are recited) and so on – or whether it’s general joy: Shabbat, holidays and in particular Sukkot and Simchat Torah, Purim and Chanukah, the inauguration of a Torah scroll, the completion of a tractate of Mishna, and more.

These photographs and artwork tell the story of Jewish joy in the years before the Holocaust, a bit during the Holocaust, when it was a sad and fearful joy, and in the period after the Holocaust, when it was cautious and accompanied by terrible pain and longing for everything that was and will never be again.

Simple Joy – The Prewar Era

Jewish Tune, Shaul Raskin

Jewish dance

Redemption of the Firstborn

Reading the engagement contract

An engagement party

A wedding in Poland

Rabbis at a wedding in Bilgoraj, Poland

The job of the badchan (jester) at a wedding

A Jewish wedding in Raguva, Lithuania

A German Jewish wedding

A Jewish wedding in Warsaw, Poland

Simchat chatan v’kallah (dancing at a wedding to bring joy to the bride and groom)

A father bringing joy to his daughter with a mitzvah tantz (a dance in which the bride dances with her male relatives, each holding one side of a cloth)