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Tzitzit This tzitzit was thought to have magical powers by the residents of Koval, Poland, where its owner, Louis Joseph, a very religious man, was born in 1821. His great-granddaughter, Lillian Abrams Greenwald, who donated it to the Museum, said villagers would put the tzitzit - a ritual garment with fringes worn during the day by observant males - on babies if they were sick because they thought it had healing powers. Joseph joined his son in Titusville, PA in 1878, where the tzitzit served a similar function. The tzitzit is an example of how Eastern European traditions were preserved in America by Jewish immigrants. Copyright 1998-2000 by the National Museum of American Jewish History |