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Witnesses to History: The Jews of Venice

A broadside in Italian and Hebrew of the Hebrat G'milut Hasadim of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community, Fraterna Della Misericordia Degl'Ebrei Todeschi de Venezia (Brotherhood of Charity of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Venice). Its logo shows a skeleton holding a scythe in one hand and a shovel in the other, surrounded by the inscribed promise, "Your dead will rise and live." The document, in print and manuscript, is a promise by the Brotherhood to pay for all medicines prescribed by the physician (except those for the "French disease"). The prescription names the patient and the medicines and is signed by a doctor.

An authorization for the payment of the medicine listed in the left-hand column by the physician whose signature is in the column on the right, by the Brotherhood of Charity of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Venice, dated 1794. The document states that all medicine prescribed will be paid for, except for "the French disease," Hebrat G'milut Hasadim, Fraterna Della Misericordia Degl'Ebrei Todeschi di Venezia (Brotherhood of Charity of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Venice), 1794. Hebraic Section, Library of Congress Photo).

Sources: Abraham J. Karp, From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress, (DC: Library of Congress, 1991).