Select objects from the Colmar Treasure. Musée de Cluny – Musée National du Moyen Âge, Paris. Counterclockwise, from left: Garnet ring, second quarter of the 14th century. Sapphire ring, second quarter of the 14th century. Onyx ring, late 13th–early 14th century. Jeweled brooch, second quarter of the 14th century. Jewish ceremonial wedding ring, ca. 1300–48

The tale told in this exhibition begins with hidden treasure uncovered in 1863 in Colmar, a city by the Rhine River, in modern-day France. While renovating a confectionery shop on the rue des Juifs (Street of the Jews) in this town of storybook charm, workmen stumbled upon a cache of medieval jewels and coins.

At the heart of this small treasure lies a rare fourteenth-century Jewish wedding ring, its gold letters spelling mazel tov (good luck). Colmar's Jewish citizens were mostly recent immigrants who had found sanctuary in the city, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. The newcomers lived alongside their Christian neighbors and flourished as merchants while Colmar's celebrated wine industry grew. Confident in the future, they built a synagogue, a mikveh for ritual bathing, and a school.

When the Plague struck in 1348–49, panic and prejudice created a toxic brew, with townspeople all along the Rhine accusing Jews of poisoning the wells. The pope's defense of the Jews fell on deaf ears, and when the emperor failed to assert the rule of law, Colmar burned its Jewish citizens to death. Following the massacre, the emperor laid claim to important Jewish assets; the rest faded into the municipal landscape. The Colmar Treasure, tucked away for safekeeping, passed unnoticed. Centuries later, the treasure in the collection of the Musée de Cluny since 1923 imposes a special burden on us: to tell the tragic tale that hatred can write and to attest to precious lives, lived and lost.

Related Content

Learn more about Jewish artistic heritage in two essays, co-authored by exhibition curator Barbara Drake Boehm, and Melanie Holcomb, from the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History:

"Jews and the Arts in Medieval Europe"

"Jewish Art in Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium"