Description
Tzedakah ('justice,' in the sense of charity) is the obligation to support the poor and charitable works, and the collection box that receives its donations is a familiar object in synagogues and homes. Fixed to the wall or portable, it takes the form of a closed box with a slot, into which coins and offerings for a given cause are slipped. In Eastern Europe, these boxes, often in brass or tin, are engraved or stamped with the name of the charitable cause or foundation that benefits (mutual aid for the poor, dowering of young women, funds for the Holy Land). Their proliferation reflects the highly developed organization of communal and confraternal charity in the Judaism of Eastern Europe.
