{"id":132,"date":"2016-02-24T21:54:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T21:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/?p=132"},"modified":"2016-07-06T16:23:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T16:23:49","slug":"acknowledgments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/acknowledgments","title":{"rendered":"Acknowledgments"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u05e6\u05b0\u05d3\u05b8\u05e7\u05b8\u05d4 \u05ea\u05b7\u05bc\u05e6\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05dc \u05de\u05b4\u05de\u05b8\u05bc\u05d5\u05b6\u05ea<\/div>\n
Tsedakah tatsil mi-mavet,<\/i> \u201cCharity Saves from Death:\u201d*<\/b><\/div>\n
The Jewish Tradition of Tsedakah<\/i> as Exemplified in Pushkes<\/i>,
\nCharity Donation Boxes<\/div>\n

By Elliot H. Gertel<\/p>\n

There is a long-established Jewish tradition and \u05de\u05b4\u05e6\u05b0\u05d5\u05b8\u05d4, mitsvah, commandment, of giving charity\u00a0to help the needy. For \u05e6\u05b0\u05d3\u05b8\u05e7\u05b8\u05d4, tsedakah is not simply the Hebrew word for charity. The deeper\u00a0and truer meaning of tsedakah is justice. To give charity to those in need\u2014whether it be food,\u00a0clothing, other necessities, or money\u2014is not merely a good deed, it is the just thing, the\u00a0righteous thing, to do, the right of the needy and the obligation of the donor. Although one is\u00a0obliged to do so, one must give freely, openly, generously, and willingly.<\/p>\n

The sage Maimonides defined eight levels of giving tsedakah. To donate anonymously where\u00a0neither the benefactor nor the beneficiary are aware of one another\u2014with neither the donor\u00a0seeking recognition nor making the recipient feel shame\u2014is giving tsedakah on a very high\u00a0plane. Providing the poor with the means for a livelihood is the highest level of all, for when\u00a0one makes it possible for a person to make a living, the beneficiary of such tsedakah is no\u00a0longer in need of handouts from those better off. In addition, the recipient of such aid is able to\u00a0\u201cpay back\u201d the benefactor by helping others in need by giving tsedakah to them.<\/p>\n

\ufb44\u05d5\u05bc\ufb2a\u05e7\u05b6\u05e2\u05e1, pushkes, Yiddish for charity donation boxes, may go back to the Middle Ages when\u00a0such boxes for alms-giving were passed through homes and synagogues. By the 20th century,\u00a0pushkes for every type of charitable organization could be found in houses, shops, synagogues,\u00a0schools, offices, and a variety of institutions. Organizations that produced and continue to\u00a0distribute the boxes and solicited donations in them include relief agencies, benevolent\u00a0associations, children\u2019s aid societies, yeshivas or Jewish religious academies, synagogues,\u00a0women\u2019s organizations, hospitals, health clinics, emergency medical aid associations, blood\u00a0banks, old age homes, schools, orphanages, burial societies, research institutes, Zionist\u00a0organizations, a variety of religious institutions, agricultural and land acquisition societies, and\u00a0many for general purposes to be decided by the owner of the boxes. In this exhibit, you will see\u00a0a wide range of such organizations represented with a number of different shapes and\u00a0materials in addition to the typical rectilinear metal pushkes.<\/p>\n

The most widely distributed and certainly best-known pushkes are the \u201cblue boxes\u201d of \u05e7\u05b6\u05e8\u05b6\u05df \u05e7\u05b7\u05d9\u05bc\u05b6\u05de\u05b6\u05ea\u00a0\u05dc\u05b0\u05d9\u05b4\u05e9\u05c2\u05b0\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc, Keren Kayemet Le-Israel or the Jewish National Fund (JNF). JNF was\u00a0founded in 1901 at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, with the purpose of buying\u00a0land for a Jewish state in Palestine and developing agriculture and forests in pre- and post-state\u00a0Israel. Here you will see several \u201cblue boxes\u201d ranging from pre-state to the early 21st century.<\/p>\n

All items donated by Constance Harris and on loan from the Jewish Heritage Collection Dedicated to Mark and Dave Harris, Special Collections Library, University Library, The University of Michigan, except where otherwise noted.
\n<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Thanks and appreciation to Deborah Dash Moore, Director, Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies; Arielle Sokol, Karmen Beecroft, Anne Elias, Martha O\u2019Hara Conway, and Athena Jackson of the University Library; Stacy Eckert and Cheri Thompson, Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies; and Sarah Garibova, graduate student in Judaic studies; for their support and assistance.<\/p>\n

*156b, Tractate Shabes, Babylonian Talmud<\/p>\n

The Pushke Collection was digitized by the UM3D Lab using the process of Photogrammetry. In this process, several high fidelity digital photographs are captured 360 degrees around the subject. These photos are analyzed by a computer algorithm to identify matching features on a per-pixel basis between photographs. These identified features are then used to triangulate a position within 3D space, allowing a 3D model of the object to be generated. The color information from the initial photographs is then mapped to the surface of the object in order to achieve a realistic digital replica. Select pieces of the Pushke collection have been further refined to correct imperfections resulting from the capturing process by an artist using digital sculpting and painting software, with the entire digital collection also being optimized for more efficient viewing on the web.<\/p>\n

Back to Home<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u05e6\u05b0\u05d3\u05b8\u05e7\u05b8\u05d4 \u05ea\u05b7\u05bc\u05e6\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05dc \u05de\u05b4\u05de\u05b8\u05bc\u05d5\u05b6\u05ea Tsedakah tatsil mi-mavet, \u201cCharity Saves from Death:\u201d* The Jewish Tradition of Tsedakah as Exemplified in Pushkes, Charity Donation Boxes By Elliot H. Gertel There is a long-established Jewish tradition and \u05de\u05b4\u05e6\u05b0\u05d5\u05b8\u05d4, mitsvah, commandment, of giving charity\u00a0to help the needy. For \u05e6\u05b0\u05d3\u05b8\u05e7\u05b8\u05d4, tsedakah is not simply the Hebrew word for charity. The deeper\u00a0and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibits.judaic.lsa.umich.edu\/pushke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}