Studio portrait of a philanthropist at her desk

Studio portrait of Dvora Esther Gelfer

Vilna, Poland, no date. Portrait of a Jewish Philanthropist

Portrait of Dvora Esther Gelfer (1817-1907). Gelfer was a philanthropist and founder of a gemilut chesed (a charitable foundation). Here Gelfer is wearing an elaborate bonnet and shaytl (wig).

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Unless otherwise stated, all artifacts featured in the exhibition come from the YIVO's Archives and Library collections. Digitization of many of these materials has been made possible by the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project.

Disclaimer: for the reader’s ease of finding wartime locations on current-day maps, we have at times used the present-day names of those cities and streets as they may be found on modern maps.