An exhibit showcasing rare illuminated manuscripts by one of the world's most renowned Jewish scholars is drawing uncharacteristic crowds of Orthodox Jews to Jerusalem’s Israel Museum.

Since opening Dec. 11, the “Maimonides: A Legacy in Script” exhibit has boosted visitation to the museum’s Jewish Art and Life wing by 60%, Miki Joelson, associate curator of the exhibition and assistant to the chief curator of the wing, told Al-Monitor. A large portion of those visiting the exhibit are Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews who don’t ordinarily patronize the museum, she said.

Moses Ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides, was a Jewish rabbi and philosopher who was born in 1138 in Cordoba, then a major city in Islamic Spain. As a young man, his family fled Spain for Morocco before wandering across the Mediterranean Sea to Crusader Acre, and eventually settling in Fustat, Egypt's capital under the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates. There he became not only the leader of the Jewish community but also royal physician to the court of Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria.

“He’s a commentator, a rabbinic authority, a doctor, a philosopher, a leader, and he’s all these things together,” said Joelson.