Confraternity cup (Havra) from Bohemia

This large confraternity cup was used at the annual banquet of the Hevra Kaddisha, the funerary confraternity responsible for the washing of the dead and the accompaniment of burials, which traditionally gathered on the 7th of the month of Adar. A collective and commemorative object, it sealed the solidarity of the members around a work considered an act of disinterested kindness. In Bohemia and Moravia, these cups in enameled glass are painted with scenes of funeral processions, the washing of the dead, or burial, accompanied by commemorative inscriptions and the names of the confraternity members. They constitute a precious testimony to associative life and the rites of death in Central European communities.