Yeshiva University Museum

June is a popular month for weddings and what better way to join in the celebrations than to share several wedding garments from our collection with you?

The first pictured garment is known as a bindalli, which means 1,000 branches, named for the decoration consisting of radiating scrolling stems and sprays. An ethnic garment, it was popular with urban women in the Ottoman Empire during the 19^th century. The style of embroidery – gold-washed metal thread wrapped around pasteboard –p called dival work or kaveséra. The example shown here wsas worn by Buka Yohai for the ceremonial walk to the mikvah before her marriage to Nahman YOhai in Gallipoli in 1910. The dress was worn by her mother, Naomi Ben Exra, and grandmother before her. The central decorative motif is striking: a graceful form evoking a tree of life, with grape clusters and sheaves of wheat, perhas symbolizing fertiflity. The garment has a special undergarments, a chemise, embroidered at the neck and wrist where the decoration would be visible.

Arthur Szyk's 1948 drawing, Baruch Dayan Emeth, is inscribed with a quotation from Thomas Jefferson: "The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants. [It is it's natural manure.]" This quote is from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Stephens Smith, Paris, 13 November, 1787.