The Jews of Venice
A broadside in Italian and
Hebrew of the Hebrat G'milut Hasadim of the Ashkenazi Jewish
Community, Fraterna Della Misericordia Degl'Ebrei Todeschi de Venezia (Brotherhood
of Charity of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Venice). Its logo shows a
skeleton holding a scythe in one hand and a shovel in the other, surrounded
by the inscribed promise, "Your dead will rise and live." The
document, in print and manuscript, is a promise by the Brotherhood to pay
for all medicines prescribed by the physician (except those for the
"French disease"). The prescription names the patient and the
medicines and is signed by a doctor.
An authorization for the payment of the medicine listed
in the left-hand column by the physician whose signature is in the column
on the right, by the Brotherhood of Charity of the Ashkenazi Jewish
Community of Venice, dated 1794. The document states that all medicine
prescribed will be paid for, except for "the French disease," Hebrat
G'milut Hasadim, Fraterna Della Misericordia Degl'Ebrei Todeschi di Venezia (Brotherhood of Charity of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Venice),
1794. Hebraic Section, Library of Congress
Photo).
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Sources: Abraham J. Karp, From
the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress,
(DC: Library of Congress,
1991).
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