The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 28, 2026

A silver etrog box, made to protect citrus fruit during the Jewish Sukkot festival, has two levels. The box has an oval base on top of which a lid slants into a platform with a rectangle framing a scene of a family seated around a table, the rectangle flanked by trees with birds on top. On the base, four people, all bearded, stand within a rectangle, foliage between them with a Hebrew inscription below (see "Inscriptions"). In flanking columns a person stands on top of a treelike structure, trunks extending beyond the base to compose the box's four legs.

Etrog Box

1956

Ilya Schor

(East European/American, 1904–1961)
America
silver
Overall: 16.6 x 12.5 cm (6 9/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
Sundry Art - Judaica Fund 2024.143
© artist or artist's estate
Location: 225 German Expressionism & Surrealism

Did You Know?

Schor in Hebrew means “ox,” but the artist used a bird as his logo, inspired by the meaning of the similar sounding word “shir”—a song, as in a songbird.

Description

An etrog box protects and stores the etrog, a citrus fruit used in the Jewish festival of Sukkot, which celebrates the fall harvest and the Israelites’ exodus from enslavement in ancient Egypt. The decoration of this box includes Jewish historical and religious figures, a scene of a family celebrating Sukkot, the zodiac, and Hebrew inscriptions referring to Sukkot and Simchat Torah. The latter is a joyous holiday following the festival of Sukkot, marking the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings and the beginning of a new cycle.

Ilya Schor trained in metalcrafts and engraving before enrolling at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts to study painting. In 1937, he was awarded a grant by the Polish government to study in Paris. During the Second World War, he fled France and came to the United States.
  • c. 1965
    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. David M. Levitt, Great Neck NY
    –2013
    Collection of Michael Steinhardt
    (Sale: Sotheby's, New York, April 29, 2013, Lot 381)
    2013–2024
    Private Collection
    2024–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Schor, Ilya, Tom L. Freudenheim, and The Jewish Museum. Ilya Schor = Y. Shor. New York: The Jewish Museum, 1965.
    "New on View.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 65, no. 3 (2025): Back cover. Reproduced and Mentioned: Back cover archive.org
  • Adorning Ritual: Jewish Ceremonial Art from the Jewish Museum, New York. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 25, 2025-October 25, 2026).
  • {{cite web|title=Etrog Box|url=false|author=Ilya Schor|year=1956|access-date=28 June 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.143