Back to all records
JWR VerifiedFounding RecordJWR-2026-000244

Jewish Heritage · Ritual ObjectsMost

Most Expensive Mezuzah Sold in a Private Sale

Record holder

Record value

US$51,361

Country represented: IsraelAchievement location: Jerusalem, IsraelAchievement date: 6 July 2009Current record

Verified by Jewish World RecordsHow we verify records

Mezuzah on a doorway in Safed

Illustrative mezuzah; not Avraham Borshevsky's privately sold record artwork.Djampa / Wikimedia CommonsSourceCC BY-SA 4.0

Official record definition

The highest Guinness World Records-certified private-sale price for a mezuzah.

Measurement methodology

Guinness World Records-certified private-sale price for the completed mezuzah artwork.

Measurement point: documented private-sale price

Record story

The record for the 'Most Expensive Mezuzah Sold in a Private Sale' was set on 6 July 2009 in Jerusalem, Israel. The mezuzah achieved a documented private-sale price of US$51,361, a figure certified by Guinness World Records for the completed artwork. The piece was created by Avraham Borshevsky, a Jerusalem-based Israeli master scribe and Hebrew calligrapher, who was named by Guinness as the record holder.

A notable aspect of the sale is the significance of the price. According to information from Guinness, the value of US$51,361 was intentionally chosen to equal the gematria sum of all the Hebrew letters written on the parchment contained within the mezuzah. The record is defined within the active Guinness World Records category for the most expensive mezuzah sold in a private sale.

Media

Record video

How JWR verified this record

Verification status
Verified
Verification date
27 September 2026
Verification standard
JWR Verification Standard 1.0

Achievement evidence

Guinness World Records certifies the US$51,361 private-sale mezuzah and names Avraham Borshevsky as holder.

Superiority evidence

The active Guinness category is explicitly scoped to the most expensive mezuzah sold in a private sale; the record is intrinsically Jewish through the mezuzah object and independently supported holder identity.

Jewish Eligibility — Verified by JWR

Jewish eligibility verification

Evidence establishing that the holder qualifies as Jewish for JWR purposes.

  • What is a Mezuzah? — My Jewish Learning
  • Jewish success story: Avraham Borshevsky growth to top scribe, Judaica talent — The Jerusalem Post

Achievement / record verification

Evidence establishing that the holder achieved the result and holds the record as defined.

  • Most expensive mezuzah sold in a private sale — Guinness World Records

Jewish eligibility, achievement and superiority evidence retain their separate classifications and are never merged. Context and provenance are not presented as proof of the achievement. Restricted evidence and internal research notes are never published. Learn more about the seven-stage process on the verification page.

Have documented contrary evidence or a stronger counter-candidate? Submit a challenge for review.

Sources & Verification

History

  1. Verified

    Verified according to JWR Verification Standard 1.0.

  2. Publishedv1

    Published to the official JWR registry.

One of the Cammarata Torah finials with Hebrew inscription details
JWR VerifiedFounding Record
Jewish Heritage · Ritual ObjectsOldest

Oldest Torah Finials (Rimmonim)

Record value

1493

The Cammarata Torah finials, or rimmonim, are a rare surviving pair of fifteenth-century Jewish ceremonial silver objects associated with the Jewish community of Cammarata in Sicily. They were made for use on a Torah scroll and are securely documented in Palma by 1493, providing a conservative record date. Their importance goes beyond age: portable synagogue silver from medieval Mediterranean Jewish communities rarely survived expulsion, migration, reuse and later destruction. The pair's Hebrew inscriptions and documented provenance preserve unusually direct evidence of Jewish ritual life before the end of the fifteenth century. Today the objects are preserved in Palma de Mallorca. JWR treats the record as an object-history record: the achievement location is Cammarata, while present custody and display are documented separately.

Country
Spain
Achievement location
Cammarata, Italy
Achievement date
1493
View full record
World's Largest Menorah on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
JWR VerifiedFounding Record
Jewish Heritage · Ritual ObjectsLargest

Largest Menorah

Record holder

Shmuel Butman

Record value

9.7 m × 8.5 m

The giant Manhattan menorah is a record object, a public ritual structure and a recurring piece of New York's holiday landscape. Rabbi Shmuel Butman spent decades promoting public Hanukkah lightings, and the 32-foot menorah associated with him and designed by Yaacov Agam became the most visible expression of that work. JWR records the Guinness dimensions while transparently flagging the one-year date inconsistency inside the Guinness page itself.

Country represented
United States
Achievement location
New York City, New York, United States
Achievement date
29 December 2006
View full record
Interior and fixed seating of Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest
JWR VerifiedFounding Record
Jewish Heritage · SynagoguesFirst

First Synagogue to Receive the European Heritage Label

Record value

First synagogue formally designated as a European Heritage Label site

The Dohány Street Synagogue Complex in Budapest became the first synagogue to be formally designated as a European Heritage Label site on 1 March 2018. The European Commission’s decision to add the complex to the list followed its selection by an independent panel in 2017. The distinction as the first synagogue to receive the label was explicitly reported by the European Jewish Congress, while the World Jewish Congress described it as the first Jewish site to be granted European Heritage recognition. A review of prior designations found no synagogues among them.

Holder country
Hungary
Achievement location
Budapest, Hungary
Achievement date
1 March 2018
View full record