Cut-Paper Mizrah from Eastern Europe

The mizrah ("east") is a plaque or panel hung on the wall of a home or synagogue to indicate the direction of Jerusalem, toward which one turns to pray; placed on the eastern wall in communities of Europe and the West, it marks that side. In Eastern Europe, it was commonly made from cut paper (the Scherenschnitt technique), pierced with a knife or scissors and heightened with watercolor. Its iconographic repertoire brings together lions, deer, columns, crowns, the word mizrah, and propitious verses. A work of folk art often executed by private individuals or schoolmasters, it testifies to a domestic devotion oriented toward the Holy Land.