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These artifacts may be found in the home, or may be used for specific purposes in the home. They are decorative or practical objects which have special meaning for their owners.
Statue of Moses
New York City
Mother, Julie
My artifact is a ceramic statue of Moses. It is made from clay. Moses is shown wearing a tan robe and a black yarmulke. He has a long beard and is holding a siddur in his hands.
This statue of Moses once belonged to my great grandmother Molly. She and her husband bought this artifact in New York around 1935. Even though this artifact doesn't really have a story, it has sentimental meaning for my family because it was passed down from my great grandmother Molly to my grandfather Herman to my mother Julie. My mom's maiden name is Schneider and so is my great grandmother's.
This statue is important to me because it is a replica of Moses and he did so many heroic things in the Jewish religion. Moses led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt across the desert to the Promised Land. He also received the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.
Bimuelo Pan
France
Grandma Cynthia
My bimuelo pan is a round piece of aluminum approximately 11 inches in diameter and two inches high. It has handles on opposite ends. The pan is not flat - it has six small round indentations, each about one and one-half inches wide.
This bimuelo pan has been passed down for about 80 years from my great-great-grandmother Eliza. She gave it to my great-grandmother Lucia who gave it to my grandmother Cynthia. My grandmother still uses the bimuelo pan every Passover. In this bimuelo pan, matzah and egg are fried in oil until golden, making little bimuelo pancake-type fritters. The bimuelos can be eaten with anything sweet such as sugar (regular or confectioners), honey, or maple syrup. I look forward to making bimuelos this year because my grandmother is going to teach me how to make them!
Seltzer Bottle
Czechoslovakia
Personal Collection
This green glass seltzer bottle is 11 inches tall including the metal siphon spout. It measures almost 12 inches around the girth of the bottle and 3 inches across the bottom. Etched in the bottom are the words: BOTTLE MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Engraved around the metal top are the words: SILK CITY BOTT. CO. INC. On the front of the glass bottle itself is etched the "label": Silk City Bottling Co. Inc. 10 Amity St. Paterson, N.J. Registered Cont. 26 025 In the center of the "label" there is a Star of David with a seltzer bottle in the middle section. This logo is in between the words Trade and Mark. There is a thin glass straw inside the bottle as well.
This seltzer bottle was hand blown in Czechoslovakia for a company owned by Jews in Paterson, New Jersey. Seltzer was a very popular drink in Eastern Europe and the immigrants who came to America brought it with them. At one time, there were hundreds of seltzer bottlers and delivery companies in the New York metropolitan area. In 2009, a New York Times articles stated that there was only one bottling company left in Canarsie, and only a few delivery men in New York City. According to wikipedia, seltzer is still made and delivered commercially in Argentina, Vienna & Toronto.
This artifact is important to me because my grandparents all lived in Paterson, New Jersey, and we used to go visit them every Sunday after Hebrew School. They always had seltzer bottles in their house. Paterson was called Silk City because it was the largest producer of silk fabric outside of China. Paterson had a very large Jewish population.
My family also had seltzer in the house. It was often my job to go to the garage and pull up the garage door (no remote) so the seltzer man could take out the cases of empty bottles and bring in the cases of filled bottles. My father loved drinking seltzer. He would drink seltzer with meat meals instead of soda. Sometimes he would make us egg creams, which is seltzer mixed with chocolate syrup (Fox's U-Bet, I remember)and milk. This seltzer bottle is a reminder of fond childhood memories and a disappearing part of Jewish culture.