Sabbath and Festival Lamp

As late as the 1400s, most European homes were lit by oil lamps. A common type featured a suspended basin for the oil and wicks with a catch pan below, for catching dripping fuel. With the widespread availability of candles, oil lamps of this type disappeared from use except among more conservative Jewish communities who continued to use oil lamps in the ritual observance of the Sabbath and religious festivals. Jewish families continue the tradition of using candles to designate the beginning of the Sabbath and holidays on the evening prior, since days on the Hebrew calendar begin with the setting of the sun instead of at sunrise.

Like many other objects in the Judaic Art Gallery, this lamp has an eventful history. At the beginning of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, the lamp’s owners buried it for safekeeping in a cemetery. Surviving family members retrieved it after the war and took it with them to Israel. More than 75% of Dutch Jewry (Jewish people collectively) died during the Holocaust. This included Anne Frank, a young Jewish Dutch teenager who left behind a diary that would be read by millions throughout the world.