This coming month, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem will begin presenting a new exhibition - "The Language of Clothing: The Jewish Wardrobe", which will feature over 100 garments and clothing items from the museum's collection, from the early 19th to the 20th centuries, from all over the world. The exhibition features a rare collection of women's clothing, suits, bridal and groom's clothing, children's clothing and personal clothing, a display that provides a glimpse into the rich culture of Jews in various communities and the development of diverse clothing styles in many countries.
After the much-talked-about exhibitions of recent years – the "Hasidim" exhibition held in 2012 and the "Horodus" exhibition in 2013 – the Israel Museum chose to present an exhibition this year on Jewish clothing that provides a comparative, global perspective. This large exhibition shows how clothing teaches both about the identity and self-image of the wearer and about the life of the individual, the community, politics and the economy. The clothes reflect a special world of color, rich textures and craftsmanship, as well as evidence of the strictness of the clothing's modesty.
Among the rare items are unique clothing items designed in Iran, women's clothing from Bukhara sewn in a multitude of colors, a white wedding dress, the robe of the Chief Rabbi of Turkey, the design of which was determined by the Ottoman government and which has inspired the robe of the First Rabbi of Zion to this day. Alongside them is an Izar from Baghdad combined with a veil woven by Menashe Yitzhak Sa'at, the greatest of the weavers in Baghdad.
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At the same time, the personal stories of some of the items are presented: a garment intended to protect the child who wore it from illness, a dress that accompanied the wearer during events in her life until it eventually became the woman's shroud, a luxurious dress of a Jewess who lived in Greece, wandered throughout Europe until she arrived at a kibbutz in Israel, and many other stories that allow us to become almost "personally" acquainted with the people who wore these garments.
The Israel Museum's clothing collection began in the 1930s at the Bezalel Home for the Disabled, whose collections were later transferred to the Israel Museum. The goal of researchers and curators was and is to save and preserve the culture of the various Israeli communities, including the enormous variety of their costumes. Over the years, the collection has grown and developed following ethnographic surveys conducted in Israel and abroad. Slowly, through painstaking work, an extraordinary collection of over 10,000 items was created, rare items of clothing, the oldest of which are about 200 years old. Creating the collection also required the Israel Museum's laboratories to face the enormous challenge of preserving the clothing and protecting it from the ravages of time. Thanks to this extraordinary collection and preservation work, the Israel Museum can now present to the general public an exhibition that is rare in its power and scope, depicting the development of clothing in all corners of the world.
