JHE joins in mourning the loss of Dr. Vivian Mann, a major scholar and leading figure in the study of Jewish art and culture. She died Monday, aged 75.
Dr. Mann was Professor Emerita of Jewish Art and Visual Culture at The Jewish Theological Seminary, and for many years she was Morris and Eva Feld Chair of Judaica at The Jewish Museum in New York.
There she curated many exhibitions and their catalogs, among them “Gardens and Ghettos: The Art of Jewish Life in Italy, ” and “Convivencia: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Spain.”
Dr. Mann wrote frequently on a wide range of topics in Jewish art and heritage, and her fields of interest included, among other areas, medieval Judaica, Sephardi art, the art of the Court Jews, and aspects of synagogue architecture. She was a friend and mentor to many other scholars.
She was a recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, and various NEH Fellowships and was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, the Hebrew University. In 1999, Dr. Mann was awarded the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in Jewish Thought by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
Read more about her work HERE.
May her soul be bound up in the bond of life; may her memory be a blessing!