The Tree of Life and Paintings in the Sephardic Synagogue in Bitola

The Jewish Museum in Belgrade has treasured photos of a wall painting from a destroyed synagogue in Sremska street in Bitola, which testify to very rare decoration of a Jewish synagogue. In fact, it is an image of the Tree of Life decorated with quotations from the Torah. The inscriptions mention four important topos of Jewish holy places: Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed. The tree of Life decorated with Torah text was flanked by two cityscapes, important pilgrimage points in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock and The holy mount of Zion.

This paper will analyze the meaning of the iconographic motifs of the Tree of Life in the context of Jewish visual culture, as well as the significance of this image in the context of the Sephardic communities in the Balkans. It will also analyze the context of the image of the Tree of Life in relation to the practice of imagining topos and pilgrimage sites that exist simultaneously in Islamic and Christian culture.