Study society charity box (Hevra Mishnayot)

This charity box (tsedaka) belongs to a study or mutual aid society, such as a Hevra Mishnayot devoted to the study of the Mishna, a type of pious confraternity common in Eastern European communities. These societies gathered the faithful for regular study, mutual assistance and the performance of good deeds, and financed their activities through the collection of alms. The collection box, in brass or another metal, bears the engraved name of the confraternity and sometimes an open book, symbol of study. An object of Jewish associative life, it illustrates the interweaving of charity, study and sociability in the Ashkenazic world.