A collection of intricate and ornate Torah pointers – some centuries old, others created just last year – have found a home at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia. They’re featured in a new exhibition, “Between Hand and Scroll: Torah Pointers From the Barr Collection,” that students had an important hand in curating.
Known as “yads” in Hebrew, Torah pointers are used to guide a reader’s eye along the sacred text of the Torah – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible – and help maintain accuracy during public readings.
Bringing these artifacts to life, 16 UVA students in a fall-semester experiential anthropology course, Curating Culture, helped professor Lise Dobrin and assistant professor of engagements Wendy Ligon Smith curate the exhibition.
The course explored the principles of curating, collecting and preserving artifacts while emphasizing the importance of cultural context in museum exhibition design. Students explored the history of museums and anthropological approaches to handling culturally sensitive artifacts.
They wrote and refined museum text, researched the origins of the yads, designed children’s interactive booklets and learned about Jewish ritual practices along the way.
The display is now on view at The Fralin until the end of July.
Dobrin has led multiple iterations of Curating Culture. In 2020, her students helped curate a display of bilum, looped net bags from Papua New Guinea. This year’s focus on Torah pointers provided a new opportunity for immersive learning.
“I feel like there’s no better way to teach anthropology than through hands-on experience,” Dobrin, who has taught linguistics and anthropology at UVA since 2000, said.
Among the students was Carina Velocci, a studio art and art history double major from Richmond. A longtime student docent at The Fralin, she was used to guiding visitors through exhibitions, but never shaped an exhibition herself.
Velocci had been eyeing the Curating Culture course for years, but it never fit into her schedule until her second-to-last semester. In hindsight, the timing couldn’t have been better.
“I think I would have taken the class no matter what the subject matter was, but I was really excited to see that it was about Judaica,” Velocci said. Her father is Jewish, but she didn’t grow up practicing any religion, making the course a meaningful way to explore her heritage.
“Learning about Judaism through the lens of museum work – something I’m passionate about – was the perfect intersection for me,” she said.
Beyond the Classroom
As a scholar and member of Charlottesville’s Jewish community, Dobrin was uniquely positioned to offer insights into the cultural significance of Jewish ritual practices. She regularly uses yads to read from the Torah as part of the weekly prayer services held at her synagogue in downtown Charlottesville, Congregation Beth Israel.
In September, Dobrin and Ligon Smith invited students to a Shabbat service at Dobrin's synagogue, offering them a chance to see a yad being used. In October, Dobrin welcomed them to her home to help build a sukkah – a temporary shelter constructed for Sukkot, the Jewish festival commemorating the Israelites’ time in the wilderness.
These experiences gave students – many with little prior exposure to Jewish culture – a firsthand understanding of its traditions and significance.
“It was very unorthodox, which I really enjoyed,” third-year medical anthropology major Dean Turner said.
A Meaningful Donation
Clay H. Barr and the Barr Foundation donated the yads, making the exhibition possible. The promised gift is the University’s first major gift of Judaica.
A $20,000 grant from Virginia Humanities, the state humanities council located in Charlottesville, supported the exhibition.
The collection includes more than 150 Torah pointers, ranging from 18th- and 19th-century antiques to contemporary pieces.
Barr’s collection reflects her enduring love for her husband, Jay D.A. Barr, a double Hoo and a 1964 graduate of UVA’s School of Law. The couple married during Jay’s third year of law school, beginning their life together on Cameron Lane.
After Jay’s passing, Barr found a personal way to honor his legacy: by collecting yads. Jay had given two yads to their local synagogue years before in honor of beloved family members, so this seemed a fitting tribute to him. In Jewish tradition, a loved one’s memory lives on as long as their name is spoken. Over the past 30 years, Barr has curated her collection of more than 200 Torah pointers through auctions and commissions, each one serving as a tribute to Jay.
Barr’s collection of Torah pointers has been showcased in exhibitions nationwide, but she chose to give it a permanent home at UVA – a place where, she said, her husband spent “so many happy hours.”
Check Out the Exhibition
Students had an early look at the finalized exhibition on Saturday during a pre-opening event with members and donors of The Fralin, Barr’s friends and family members and other stakeholders.
“The exhibition’s space is really transformed,” Turner said. “It has been so rewarding to see our hard work out in the open for everyone to see.”
