A canopy (Chupah) that was made by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for Holocaust Survivors in the DP Camps. Made in Palestine, [the middle-late 1940s].
The canopy is made of blue cloth with an embroidered star-of-David in its center with the Hebrew word "Zion", and around it the Hebrew verse: "The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride" (Jeremiah 33: 11). In the lower-left corner, embroidered in gold lettering is the Hebrew inscription "Joint A.J.D.C., made in Palestine". A metal loop is attached to each of the four corners, for spreading the canopy on poles.
During the years 1945-1949, the Joint manufactured approx. 100 canopies for residents of the DP camps. The urgent need for food, clothes and medicine left the organization with few resources for preparing Jewish ceremonial objects and these were manufactured in little quantities only. The few canopies that were made were transferred between the various camps in Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Greece, and under them, hundreds of weddings for Jewish couples who had survived the war and wanted to start a new life were conducted.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was established in 1914 in order to assist Jews in danger all over the world. After World War II, the Joint was one of the first organizations that lent a hand to Holocaust survivors (in fact, the representatives of the Joint reached Europe already in 1944, before the end of the war) and its activity is considered one of the most important contributions to the rehabilitation of European Jewry after the war.
Approx. 140X142 cm. Good condition. Minor stains.
An identical canopy is exhibited at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
See enclosed material.