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A rare 17th-century parchment scroll of the Book of Esther, on loan from the National Library of Israel, has returned temporarily to the town of its creation, Ferrara, Italy, as part of a new exhibition that opened this week at the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS). The exhibition, "Beautiful Esther: Purim, a Timeless Story," explores the Biblical figure of Queen Esther through Renaissance art, rare parchments, historical artifacts, and interactive displays. The  scroll, or megillah, was written and illuminated in 1616 by Moshe Ben Avraham Pescarol, for a man named Mordechai Ben Eliyahu Halevi, who lived in the town of Brescello, near Ferrara, according to information written on the megillah itself. Dr. Chaim Neria, curator of the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel told KAN reporter Naomi Segal that the illuminated megillah is believed to be the first in the Jewish world where the illustrations are part of the narrative. (Photo: Ferrara Megil