Met Museum mislabels Jewish phylacteries as 6th-century Egyptian amulet
The tefillin acquired by the museum is kept in the Islamic Art department.
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERI A Jewish worshipper wears Tefillin as he prays at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City March 8, 2012. Tefillin, leather straps and boxes containing sacred parchments, are worn by Orthodox Jewish men during morning prayer(photo credit: BAZ RATNER/REUTERS)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) seemingly mislabeled a piece from their collection, which appears in the photograph to be Jewish phylacteries (tefillin), as a 6th-Century amulet from Egypt.Tefillin is worn by observant Jews during their weekday morning prayers and contain scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. The one tefillin obtained by the museum is marked to have been acquired in 1962 and is kept in the Islamic Art department.The museum marked the prediction of the time period from which it comes as being between 500 and 100 AD.The Met has, in the past, had impressive displays of ancient Jewish relics. In mid-2019, a collection of items was displayed pertaining to Jewish families from the Middle Ages located in Colmar, France.In March of 2020, the museum dedicated a 19th-century model of Solomon's Temple.
