Temple’s Aron Museum
On May 22, 1953 the late Anna and Josef Aron, presented Temple with a showcase and the following five Jewish ceremonial art objects:
- Silver Chanukah menorah from the Rothschild family collection from Frankfurt, Germany, late 19th century
- Silver Passover Seder tray from Vienna, Austria, 1866
- Silver double circumcision cup, inscribed “Cup of Mezizah”, from Germany, 19th century
- Two silver amulets with Kabbalistic inscriptions in Aramaic relating to childbirth and blessings for the health of mother and child, to ward off the Evil Eye, spirits and disease; from Kurdistan, 19th century.
Thanks to continued support from the Aron Legacy, the generosity of the Maurice Pollack Family Foundation, the Violet Bercovitch Fund, and other Temple supporters, the Museum is now home to one of the most important collections of Judaica in Canada, containing over 300 outstanding examples of ceremonial art from around the world, including:
- Parchment of Megillat Esther from Istanbul
- Shofars from Yemen
- Silver shiviti from Bessarabia
- Passover haggadah published in Amsterdam (1794)
- Two Roman style glass vials from the 4th century C.E., discovered in Judea by General (and amateur archaeologist) Moshe Dayan
Opening Hours
You are welcome to view our impressive collection of precious artefacts by appointment. For further information, please call the Temple office at 514.937.3575.
More on the Aron museum
Loren Lerner, editor. Blessings, Art and Essays on Jewish Blessings Gathered for Two Exhibitions and a Symposium at Montreal’s Temple Emanu-El Beth Sholom, May 10-14, 2007. Montreal: Centre for Canadian Jewish Studies,Concordia University, 2009.
This book contains artwork, two curatorial studies and scholarly essays from exhibitions and a symposium at Temple. The volume includes writings by Dr. Loren Lerner, Dr. Norman Ravvin and Dr. Norma Joseph (Concordia University), and Rabbi Howard Joseph (Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue) and Rabbi Leigh Lerner (Temple). The curatorial studies are by Jacqui Sischy and Suzanne Rackover, both graduates of the M.A. programme in Art History at Concordia University. Sischy connects with the Temple members who donated the Judaica artefacts, and discovers the meaning and origin of each object. In “Blessings: A Contemporary Art Exhibition,” Suzanne Rackover considers the interrelation of art and blessing in installations, paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings by Marcel Braitstein, Rita Briansky, Sorel Cohen, Caroline Dukes, Devora Neumark, David Silverberg, Sylvia Safdie, Lyndia Terre and Marion Wagschal. Associating each work with a particular blessing, her premise is that it is possible to imagine and visually conceive a blessing. Works by Braitstein, Safdie, Wagschal, Cohen and Briansky are on view at Temple.(PDF)
Material Culture Review/Revue d’histoire de la culture matérielle 64 (Fall 2006): 8–19. Lerner, Loren.
Canadian Jewish Studies / Études Juives Canadiennes 12 (January 2004). Lerner, Loren. See pp. 36-39.
Shoah Memorial Gallery
Opened on April 29, 2011, our Holocaust Memorial exhibition features works by Canadian artists Marcel Braitstein, Sorel Cohen, Georges Dyens, Angela Grossmann, Marie-Jeanne Musiol and Marion Wagschal. Some of these works were originally shown in two previous exhibitions, “Afterimage” at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, spring 2000, and “Memories and Testimonies” at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, spring 2002. The exhibitions were curated by Dr. Loren Lerner, Department of Art History, Concordia University; and documented in accompanying exhibition catalogues.
Lerner, Loren. Memories and Testimonies / Memoires et Témoignages. Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, April 2002. Travelling exhibition, 2002-2004.
Lerner, Loren, editor. Afterimage: Evocations of the Holocaust in Contemporary Canadian Arts and Literature / Rémanences: Evocationsde l’Holocauste dans les arts et littérature canadiens contemporains. Montreal: Centre for Canadian Jewish Studies, Concordia University, 2002.
Afterimage grew out of the exhibition and conference held at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. The publication consists of two parts. The first considers the exhibition Afterimage, which included works inspired by memories of the Shoah as expressed through the personal voices of eight women artists who were born near the end or after World War II, and were affected by the war and the Holocaust.Works by Sorel Cohen, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, and Marion Wagschal are in the Shoah Gallery. The second part of the publication is a collection of essays and creative writings. Visual and performing artists, creative writers and cultural historians were invited to the conference to consider the impact of the Holocaust on recent Canadian art and literature. Afterimage is the first book of its kind to consider Holocaust Studies with a Canadian focus on arts and literature.
(For a copy of the copy of the PDF, please email marci@templemontreal.ca)