JOIN Rebecca Abrams for a free lunchtime talk about Jewish history spanning 4,000 and 22 objects.

The writer will be discussing her book ‘The Jewish Journey’ which tells the story of the Jewish people from antiquity to modern times through a series of items from the Ashmolean Museum, brought together for the first time.

Many of the objects are little-known treasures and all 22 have remarkable stories.

A recent X-ray of Mark Gertler's painting Gilbert Cannan and his Mill, has revealed an unfinished work, a painting of a Jewish couple.

And a £5 banknote from 1943, forged in a Nazi concentration camp, formed part of an abandoned German plan to destabilise the British economy by flooding it with forged notes.

Other highlights include a Roman coin made of gold looted from the Second Temple during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, a Hebrew magic amulet used by Christian Kabbalists, and a viola da gamba with links to crypto-Jews in Renaissance Italy and Tudor England.

Spanning 4,000 years of history and covering 14 different countries, the objects trace the evolution of Jewish life and culture from its earliest beginnings in Ancient Mesopotamia through time and space to the modern day.

The talk will take place on January 25 from 1pm until 2pm at Blackwell's Broad Street store.

For all enquiries, please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk