The Papyrus Temple

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow has one of the world’s greatest collections of art, with more than 700,000 artifacts – yet the Jewish treasures of the museum have never been exposed. 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 Pushkin Museum.

Beit Avi Chai presents the sixth episode of Let Objects Speak: Jewish Artifacts in Russian Museums series that focuses on a unique Hebrew papyrus with a description of the service in the Temple on Yom Kippur. Who compiled this document in the 6th century CE? Is this fragment a religious poem or something else altogether?

Script: Julia Idlis

English Script: Matti Friedman

Director: Daria Shtyrkova

Videographer: Andrey Kovalenko

Academic Consultants: Alexey Lyavdansky, Evgeniya Anokhina

Voice-over: Matti Friedman

Music: Masha Logofet

Sound Mix: Alex Nadzharov

Animation: Vadim Tugeev, Galina Palchik

Editing: Evgeniy Todich

Beit Avi Chai is grateful to the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for permission to film the artifacts and to The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow for their assistance

Beit Avi Chai: Dr. David Rozenson, CEO; Dr. Simon Parizhsky, Educational Director of Ideas Without Borders; Svetlana Busygina, Administrative Director Ideas Without Borders.