Kitty Ruttenberg Index of Judaica and Jewish Art, 1991-2008

ArchivalResource

Kitty Ruttenberg Index of Judaica and Jewish Art, 1991-2008

Kitty Ruttenberg Index of Judaica and Jewish Art, 1991-2008

1991-2008

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3AUS-QQSmss518/viewer

The Kitty Ruttenberg Index of Judaica and Jewish Art, originally titled the Pittsburgh Index of Judaica and Jewish Art, was organized by its founding president, Katherine (Kitty) Ruttenberg, in 1991. It was intended to be a pilot project – the first in the United States – for a larger project conceived by Professor Bezalel Narkiss and established in 1979 as the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Center’s website describes it as “the world's most comprehensive database of Jewish art. It was created to include systematic documentation of all extant Jewish art around the world, from antiquity to the contemporary period, thus directly contributing to the preservation of the Jewish artistic heritage.” The Jerusalem index is no longer active, and there is no online public access to its databases at this time. The Pittsburgh Index Project, composed largely of volunteers, trained teams of indexers to go to synagogues in the Pittsburgh area to photograph ritual objects in these collections and to describe them according to standardized terminology developed by the Jerusalem Center. Sylvia Plutchok, Director of Indexing from the beginning of the project, developed an extensive manual used for training indexers. The manual provides detailed information and drawings of the parts, materials, and styles of typical Jewish ritual objects, and it gives directions for taking uniform measurements. These records document the Pittsburgh Index of Judaica and Jewish Art from its founding in 1991 to its dissolution in 2007. They include minutes, committee and financial reports, newsclippings, correspondence, and charitable corporation documentation. A copy of the manual used as a guide for the project is also included. It is composed of chapters of explanations and descriptions of rimonim, the ornamental finials placed on Torahs; Torah shields, or breastplates; Torah crowns; Torah pointers, or yads; Torah Ark curtains; candelabra; and other objects. The finished products of the Index are detailed reports on the collections of B’nai Israel, Rodef Shalom, and Temple Sinai. Each object was photographed, some from more than one angle, and the accompanying description forms provide information on dimensions, composition materials, provenance, and inscriptions, the full text of which is often given in both English and Hebrew. These records provide a well-structured and extremely detailed picture of the art and ritual objects used in these congregations in the 1990s. The arrangement is alphabetical by topic and chronological within folders.

1 linear foot (2 boxes)

eng, Latn

eng, Latn

Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Heinz History Center Detre Library and Archives