Shiviti

The purpose of a shiviti is to remind the worshipper of God by presenting a sentence from Psalms (16:8): "I am ever mindful of the Lord's presence." It was common practice to place tablets bearing the quotation near the reader's desk in a synagogue. This example stood in that position in the Great Synagogue of Danzig until its destruction in 1939. From the dedicatory inscription along the bottom, however, it is obvious that this shiviti was made for another house of worship, as it predates the building of the Great Synagogue by some eighty years. "This was donated by Menahem Manus son of H. of Schwersenz and his wife Feigel� the year [5]564 (=1803/4)." Since the building of the Great Synagogue marked the union of previously independent communities, its leaders made a conscious effort to symbolize unification by incorporating older works of ceremonial art from the constituent congregations, like this shiviti.

The donors' inscription is also interesting as an illustration of the way that many European Jews established family names. Menahem Manus is described as coming from Schwersenz, a city near Posen (Poznan). A Torah binder belonging to his son that is dated 1796 is also part of the Danzig collection, which indicates that the family probably resided in Danzig at the time this shiviti made. By World War I, Schwersenz had become the family name. Phillip Schwersenz, who died "for the fatherland," is listed on the veterans' memorial plaque of the Great Synagogue.

Beyond its documentary significance, this shiviti is an interesting example of the transition from the rococo to the neoclassical. A clear sense of architectural order is presented by the simple outlines and prominent moldings of the plaque. The covered urns which flank the segmented pediment are a favorite neoclassical motif. Yet the remaining motifs are rococo forms, such as the cartouches and shell motifs of the tympanum. In part, this melange of styles may be due to an older model used by the artist for the Tabernacle implements. He probably based his forms on a manuscript illumination or on early 18th-century valances for the Torah ark.

Source: Norman L. Kleeblatt and Vivian B. Mann. TREASURES OF THE JEWISH MUSEUM. New York: The Jewish Museum, 1986, pp. 138-139.