Demon Bowls

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg has one of the world’s greatest collections of art, with more than 3 million artifacts – yet the Jewish treasures of the museum have never been widely known.

Join award-winning author Matti Friedman as he takes us on a rare tour and a glimpse of Jewish history and culture as they appear in the treasures of the Hermitage.

Beit Avi Chai’s Ideas Without Borders presents the second episode of the Let Objects Speak: Jewish Artifacts in Russian Museums series that focuses on Aramaic magical bowls at The Hermitage, which reveal rather unorthodox Jewish folk practices at the time of the Babylonian Talmud.

Script: Julia Idlis

English script: Matti Friedman

Director: Nina Guseva

Videographer: Maria Falieleeva

Producer: Daria Shtyrkova

Academic Consultant: Shimon Iakerson, Alexey Lyavdansky, Maria Kaspina

Voice-over: Matti Friedman

Music: Masha Logofet

Sound Mix: Alex Nadzharov

Animation: Vadim Tugeev, Galina Palchik

Edit: Evgeniy Todich

Beit Avi Chai is grateful to The State Hermitage Museum for permission to film the artifacts; and for the kind assistance of The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center of Moscow, Alexandra Kiseleva, Collection Supervisor and Elizaveta Zubyuk, Librarian.

Beit Avi Chai: Dr. David Rozenson, CEO; Simon Parizhsky, educational director of the Ideas Without Borders project; Svetlana Busygina, administrative director IWB.