Memorial Tablet and Omer Calendar

Over the centuries, immigrants to the United States have brought with them the traditions and culture of their native lands including particular forms of folk art, like the fraktur of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, who arrived in great numbers in the late 19th century, brought the art of paper-cutting, which they employed for many types of written documents connected with religious ceremony. Baruch Zvi Ring (Ringiansky) came to Rochester from Vishya, Lithuania, in 1902, two years before he created this work as well as several others of smaller size. His earliest known paper-cut had been created in Europe when Ring was only ten years old. It shows the same love of intricate patterns and clarity of composition seen here.

This monumental work serves two functions; in effect it combines two types of religious documents. One is the omer calendar that marks the forty-nine days beginning with the second day of Passover and ending with the first day of Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks). At the time of the Temples in Jerusalem, a measure of barley (omer) was offered daily during these seven weeks, hence the name. The two outer circles of the center field are the calendar. The first holds the blessing said nightly at the counting and the formula for the first night; the outer band of roundels contains formulas for the remaining nights. However, the calendrical function of this work is almost subsumed by its major purpose: to list the names of deceased members of the congregation whose memory the society honored by studying a portion of the Mishnah (the oral law) on the anniversary of death. These names are inscribed in the penultimate border of the sides and bottom and in the spaces between the lower pairs of columns. The remaining texts written in small letters are: (between the upper columns) prayers said after the study session; one includes the name of the deceased, the other is the kaddish; (on the lower column base) four texts form the Mishnah whose initial letters form neshama, the Hebrew word for soul; and an open book of the Mishnah (represented at bottom). The texts in large letters on the flags and top roundels give the name of the society: "The Society for the Study of Mishnah of Beth Hamedrash Hagodol"[name of the synagogue]. Those in the center circles tell of its founding "established here in Rochester on Tuesday, the first day of the New Moon of Adar, the year [5]664" (=Febuary 16, 1904). The bottom roundels detail the society's obligations to study in memory of the deceased. Finally, the artist's signature appears in the lozenges attached to the lower roundels: "My handiwork in which I glory (Is. 60:21) From me, Baruch Azi son of Jacob Ring."

These numerous texts are unified by their placement within a symmetrical composition balanced along the central vertical axis. Not only the texts but also the figurative motifs appear in pairs, with the single exception of the signs of the zodiac, which are divided into two rows of six, one alongside each of the long lists of names. They were probably included to signify the year cycle of commemorations. Another unifying factor is the related scale of all the cut-outs that form overall background patterns against which the texts and figures stand out as reserved areas. This relationship of form and ground, as well as the horror vacuii evident in this composition, are characteristic of Eastern European folk art. Only the text and the American form of the eagles framing the Crown of the Torah mark this work as having been made in the United States.

Source: Norman L. Kleeblatt and Vivian B. Mann. TREASURES OF THE JEWISH MUSEUM. New York: The Jewish Museum, 1986, p. 130-131.