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On view now in Scenes from the Collection, this painting by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim is one of the earliest self-portraits by a Jewish artist. Born to Orthodox parents in the ghetto of Hanau, Germany on this day in 1800, Oppenheim later went on to study academic painting Munich Academy of Arts—an opportunity previously unavailable to Jews, and a vivid testimony to the emergence of Jewish artists during the 19th century.

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Final weekend—don't miss your last chance to see Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922, closing this Sunday. Through the work of three iconic figures–Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich–as well as works by students and teachers of the People's Art School, discover how Vitebsk–a small city with a significant Jewish population–became an incubator of avant-garde art during a time of radical transformation following the Russian Revolution of 1917.

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These were the 10 most viewed objects in the Jewish Museum collection. Can you guess why? Read about our (now annual) list of most popular works in our online collection based on Google Analytics data:

Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907

Christian Boltanski, Monument (Odessa), 1989–2003

George Segal, The Holocaust, 1982

Torah Finials, Mantua (Mantova, Italy), early 18th century

Arnold Newman, Marc Chagall, New York City, 1941

Kehinde Wiley, Alios Itzhak (The World Stage: Israel), 2011

John Vachon, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

Anni Albers, Six Prayers, 1965–66

Marc Chagall, Untitled (Old Man with Beard), c. 1931

Lee Krasner, Self-Portrait, c. 1930

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Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, begins tonight at sundown. The holiday commemorates the miraculous events that occurred in ancient Israel during a desperate war for Jewish religious and political freedom, when a small bit of oil burned in the rededicated Temple for eight days—giving the Jews time to find more pure oil to keep the eternal flame lit. The Jewish Museum's collection of Hanukkah lamps is the largest in the world at nearly 1,050 pieces, amassed over the 114 years of the Museum's existence. On view now, see over 80 Hanukah lamps representing four continents and six centuries of artistic production, revealing rich details of the lives of Jews all over the world.

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On World AIDS Day, reflect on this Hanukkah lamp titled In Search of Miracles, on view now. In his use of test tubes for oil containers, the artist Salo Rawet associates the ancient miracle of Hanukkah with the search for a cure for AIDS, cancer, and other plagues of our time. The artist proposes here an alternative version of lighting the Hanukkah lamp, extending beyond the traditional eight days of the holiday to symbolize continuous cycles of the sun and moon. In this new interpretation, the lamp becomes and embodiment of hope and an expression of "human attempts to intervene and support the divine process of exuding miracles in our daily life."

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RIP American Minimalist sculptor Robert Morris, who has died at the age of 87. His work was first presented at the Jewish Museum in our landmark 1966 exhibition on Minimalism Primary Structures. In this photograph, Morris's work is seen on the right, next to sculptures by Donald Judd and Robert Grosvenor.

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Today marks the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. November 9, 1938 marked an outpouring of violence against Jews in Nazi Germany. To memorialize the event, artists Doug and Mike Starn framed a page excerpted from Anne Frank's Diary. The work acknowledges historical events, and the Diary as a textual witness to the encroaching Holocaust.

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In honor of Election Day, we highlight a series of portraits in the Jewish Museum collection by the artist Ben Shahn, which depicts James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The three civil rights workers participated in the voter registration project Freedom Summer, aimed at registering African-Americans to vote in Mississippi. On the night of June 21, all three men disappeared in Neshoba County; their bodies were discovered after a two-month search by the FBI where they had been buried following their murder by members of the local Ku Klux Klan. Produced as a portfolio for the Human Relations Council of Greater New Haven, Connecticut, these portraits reflect the Shahn’s lifelong commitment to social justice.  

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In Jewish communities around the world, the kindling of lights inaugurate the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest. This Sabbath lamp from the Jewish Museum Collection on view now, was made in Kochi, India. It belonged to the leader of the local Jewish community and warden of the Paradesi Synagogue, which remains the only active synagogue there today.

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Trick or treat? In 1941 Weegee (born Arthur Fellig), known for photographing New York City's nocturnal world, discovered a black cat inside a mailbox on West 42nd Street. "Almost anything can happen in Hell's Kitchen," he wrote. "For instance, here's Blackie, who was mailed last night." 

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For artist William Anastasi, who painted Untitled (jew) on view now, the term "jew" is the most charged word in the English language. On the one hand, its plain, assertive presence, black on white, is an affirmation of Jewish existence, Jewish history, the great intellectual lineage embedded in Jewish culture. On the other hand, the lowercase spelling evokes its use as a slur, an expression of bigotry. Given its associations with antisemitism, the term reeks of ideas that are accusatory and denigrating, even violent.

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“It is a tree of life to all who grasp it, and whoever holds on to it is happy; its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all it paths are peace." (Proverbs 3:17-18) Although the tree of life is a term used in the Hebrew Bible, the concept of a sacred tree is widely used among religions and cultures around the world. On view now, this Tree of Life Hanukkah lamp in the Jewish Museum collection was made by Russian-born French artist and designer Erté in 1987.

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All aspects of traditional Jewish life are based on the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Shemini Atzeret, which begins tonight at sundown, anticipates the joyful beginning of a new year of Torah readings, followed by Simchat Torah, when all of the Torah scrolls are removed from the ark (a cabinet designed to hold Torah scrolls such as the one pictured) and paraded around the synagogue in their ornaments. Learn more about these holidays through works in the Jewish Museum collection on view now during our free admission days tomorrow, Monday, October 1 and Tuesday, October 2.

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Sukkot begins tonight at sundown, commemorating the autumn harvest and the forty-year period during which the Children of Israel wandered in the desert. An important Sukkot tradition involves the use of an etrog (a yellow fruit similar to a large, wrinkly lemon), which is protected inside an Etrog container such as this one designed by Israeli artist Zelig Segal, on view now. Learn more about the holiday through works in Jewish Museum collection on free admission days this Monday, September 24 and Tuesday, September 25.

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Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins today at sundown. The holiday is observed with a day of fasting and prayer as penance for past sins. The shofar—an ancient instrument crafted from a ram’s horn—is sounded tomorrow at sunset to signal the closing of Yom Kippur, and an end to the day-long fast.

In observance of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Museum will close at 2 pm today through tomorrow, Wednesday, September 19. We reopen on Thursday, September 20 at 11 am.

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Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922, opens today at the Jewish Museum. This exhibition of some 160 works presents the artistic output of three iconic figures–Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich–as well as works by students and teachers of the People's Art School 100 years after its founding following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Discover how Vitebsk–a small city with a significant Jewish population–became an incubator of avant-garde art during a time of radical transformation.

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Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins this Sunday at sundown. For Jews around the world, the holiday is ushered in with a shofar blast and a profusion of New Year greetings. On view now, this unexpected New Year greeting dated from 1910 hails all the way from Nome, Alaska, produced by an Alaskan Inuit carver known as Happy Jack. For nearly 400 years, Jewish immigrants have brought to America their skills and ambition to succeed. Today, this unique object serves as testimony that Nome was one among many far-flung places where Jews have lived and thrived.