Fabrics and Stories – Textiles from the Jewish Museum Collections        

Before the reform movement women had no active function in the religious service, but they have always played an important role in traditional communities as donors of textiles for the synagogue. They often provided hand-made Torah curtains and mantles and other sacral textiles. Some even reworked their wedding dress into a parochet (Torah curtain), which was regarded as a particularly good deed (mitzvah). The embroidered Hebrew inscriptions tell about the donors and their families, and about personal and historical events.
 

For more details see: http://www.jmw.at/en/exhibitions/fabrics-and-stories-textiles-jewish-museum-collections