American actress Marilyn Monroe with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller at London Airport, 14th July 1956. Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images via JTA)
NEW YORK (JTA) — An item that belonged to Marilyn Monroe is being put up for auction and it’s not quite what you’d expect. Next month, one lucky fan of the late actress will be able to acquire a Jewish prayer book, or siddur, that she owned.
The cream-colored book, which was published in 1922, is being sold at an auction by J. Greenstein & Co. on Nov. 12 in Cedarhurst, Long Island. The starting bid is $4,600.
Monroe converted to Judaism in 1956 prior to her marriage to Jewish-American writer Arthur Miller. Though the couple divorced five years later, the blonde bombshell said she would not abandon her new faith
Rabbi Robert Goldburg of Congregation Mishkan Israel in New Haven, Connecticut, who oversaw her conversion and officiated at her wedding to Miller, said that she told him that she was still committed to being Jewish.
The siddur is being sold on behalf of its current owner, an American living in Israel who bought it from Monroe’s estate in 1999, The Jewish Chronicle reported. The prayer book was previously put up for auction in 2017 and went unsold.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
J. Greenstein & Co. is auctioning off Marilyn Monroe’s personal siddur. (J. Greenstein & Co. via JTA)
Monroe seems to have put the siddur to use. The description says that it contains notes that are “apparently in her hand” and that the spine is nearly detached.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
