To the Editor:

I read with great interest Cecil Roth’s article “The Art and Craft of Jewish Collecting” in the June issue of COMMENTARY. I note that he praises the extraordinary collection of Jewish ceremonial objects assembled by “a musician named Strauss,” and later purchased by one of the Rothschilds and presented to the Cluny Museum in Paris. Mr. Roth mentions with regret that this fine collection has for some years been stored in the vaults of the Cluny, inaccessible both to collectors and to scholars.

The readers of COMMENTARY, especially those whose interest in Jewish collecting was stirred by Mr. Roth’s fine article, may be interested to learn that this unusual collection of Jewish ceremonial objects, now known as the Strauss-Rothschild collection, is no longer inaccessible. It has been on exhibit in New York City at the Jewish Museum (Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street) since last May, and will remain on view there until the end of the year.

The loan of the collection was arranged, with the cooperation of the French government and of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, to help celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish Museum of the Jewish Theological Seminary in its present location, the former home of Felix M. Warburg. The limited visit of this collection at the Jewish Museum gives American collectors a rare opportunity to see it.

Your New York readers (and visitors to the city) may want to know that the Jewish Museum is open Mondays through Thursdays from 1-5 P.M. and Sundays from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. Admission is free at all times.

Marjorie G. Wyler
Office of Public Information
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
New York City

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