On February 9, 1767, just a few weeks before the Jewish holiday of Purim, a Jewish teen in Rome celebrated her 14th birthday by putting the final touches on a parchment scroll.

Joining the ranks of only some two dozen known female scribes through the mid-19th century, Luna Ambron had just completed writing a copy of Megillat Esther, the biblical Book of Esther, which Jews traditionally read from to mark the festival.

Accompanying the scroll was a separate blessing sheet, also written by Ambron in delicate Hebrew cursive, that marked the occasion. “With the help of the wondrous God of great deeds, the writing of these blessings together with the scroll was completed on the tenth day of the month of Adar 1 in the year 5527, all in script, written as if by the hand of the Lord who has taught understanding the modest and gracious girl, innocent lady Luna, daughter of the honorable gentleman Yehudà Ambron, may his Fortress preserve and sustain him in life,” read part of the sheet. “May the fruits of her hands rise before her.”

The megillah, or parchment scroll, is decorated with elaborate roses and is the highlight of the exhibition “The Girl Who Wrote” at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

It was set to open Sunday, days before Purim, and run until September 1, but the exhibit’s debut has been delayed indefinitely by the war with Iran, which has shuttered museums and other public institutions.

Among the 16th- to 19th-century items on display is the only other known medieval megillah copied by a woman that has survived to this day: a 16th-century scroll from Italy. It is, remarkably for a sacred text, decorated with salacious images inspired by Greek art featuring statues of largely naked women, their breasts bare.

The exhibition features an additional megillah blessing sheet and some other liturgical documents by female scribes.

“Luna’s megillah is very unique; it is artistic, and at the same time, we can see that the handwriting belongs to someone who is learning,” curator Anna Nizza-Caplan told The Times of Israel during a tour of the exhibition last week.

Nizza-Caplan stressed that what is even more unique is the accompanying blessing sheet, featuring the blessings recited before and after the reading, and the fact that the two objects have survived together for over 250 years.

“Luna’s inscription on the blessing sheet gives us an opening into her world,” said Nizza-Caplan.

The sheet is also richly decorated with floral motifs and scenes from the Purim story, including Haman leading the righteous Mordechai on horseback and Haman’s hanging.

The megillah and accompanying sheet resurfaced in 2021, when they were auctioned off in Jerusalem by an anonymous private owner and purchased by the Israel Museum. According to Nizza-Caplan, even Jewish historian Lionella Viterbo Neppi Modona, 94, one of the last known descendants of Luna’s family, who has written extensively on the Ambrons, was not aware of its existence.

Throughout Jewish history, it was very rare for women to act as scribes.

“We know of only twenty........

© The Times of Israel