Jewish Patronage

We often recall the hardships of Jewish life through the ages, and there can be no doubt that most Jews—like most people—lived simple lives with limited resources. But we also know that some Jews achieved considerable wealth, as the most luxurious of manuscripts in our collection testify. Patrons had to spend fortunes on the parchments (animal skins) on which texts were written, on the scribes and artists whose skills were necessary to produce the text, on the pigments and gold leaf that would enhance the beauty of those texts. Sometimes we know the names—or at least families—of these wealthy Jews and sometimes we only know their wealth. But recognition of this less-recognized reality allows us to understand that Jews were often more like their neighbors than we commonly recall.