Description
This seal (hotam) was the official seal of a Jewish community (kehilla), used to authenticate its documents, certificates, and correspondence by an impression applied in wax or ink. The administrative autonomy of Central European Jewish communities, endowed with their own institutions of governance, made the seal an essential instrument of their legal and corporate life. These brass seals engraved the Hebrew name of the community around an emblem, often a heraldic or symbolic motif. An administrative object, the communal hotam testifies to the internal organization and relative sovereignty of Jewish communities in the modern era.
