Family Artifacts
All of our artifacts are from family members. They are both religious and personal items and they are very important to us. Some can still be used and some not. These artifacts are important to our families. Each one tells part of our story and connects us with our past.
Mortar & Pestle
Turkey - Smyrna
Zimbul Z.
My father told me stories of our family using mumya to cure illness. Mumya is pulverized bones of mummies. The more important the mummy (his status), the more effective the mumya, supposedly. The mummy was obtained on the black market and was supposedly used by Turkish Jews for many generations. My great- great-grandmother brought it with her to America when she immigrated from Turkey. The bones were ground up with a mortar and pestle. My aunt was cured of stuttering after she was given some mumya following a Hebrew prayer. The use of mumya was mainly for ailments that had chills as one of the symptoms. There was also something about not eating garlic after being given the mumya or it would not work. The prayer was handwritten and attached to the vial of mumya but we do not know what happened to that vial and we also do not have the prayer any more. The person being treated was unable to know they were receiving the mumya or it supposedly would not work. Unfortunately, we do not have any other information and the vial disappeared after my grandmother died.
The Turkish Jews of my great-great-grandmother's community used many home remedies. I do not know if this was solely a "Jewish" practice, but I'm sure it made the people feel a closer connection to their community, having rituals and remedies that they would call their own.
Besamim Shaker
Germany
Mom
My father and mother got this besamim shaker when they got married. It was a token of their love. It was given to them by a family friend, who also gave kiddush cups to my brother and I when we were born. Interestingly, this friend, Robert Fuchs, is not Jewish but fought in WW II with the American OSS. Mr. Fuchs family was German, originally, and I think it was especially meaningful to have Jewish kids in his life that he cared about. Nobody knows where he got the shaker from, it will remain a mystery. We never really used the shaker because my dad said it always made him sad to celebrate the end of Shabbat. It's always been kept in the dining room and it has spices in it, so it smells good.
This besamim shaker celebrates Havdalah and how sweet life is. The word Bsamim means "spices". According to Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism, of all the senses, smell is the only one that touches the soul. And smell is important in Jewish rituals. When we read in the Torah about sacrifices, many times it is mentioned that fragrant incense was used, and the good smells were sent up to heaven.
Kiddush Cup Plate
Zimbabwe
Grandmother
The Kiddish cup plate and set was given to my mother by my grandmother. My grandmother was given the plate as a gift from teaching Hebrew in Zimbabwe. This plate is important to my family because we use it every Friday night and it reminds my mother of her mom.
This Kiddush cup plate and set is important to Jewish heritage because it shows that my grandmother was involved in Jewish education, which is important for passing down Jewish heritage. We use a Kiddish plate and cups to welcome in Shabbat. It makes Shabbat more special, and makes the table look more beautiful.
Place Setting
Czechoslovakia
Cheryl & Robert K.
This heirloom was given to my mother by her mother. It originally was part of a set of china given as a wedding present to my maternal great-grandmother, Sadie, from her mother Fannie. It goes back four generations in our family.
This heirloom was given to my great-grandmother before she left Poland to come to New York to get married. The dishes were only used to celebrate the Jewish holidays. They were sent with my great grandmother to the United States so she would keep the tradition of using these dishes for only celebrating her Judaism.It was one of the few items she had from the 'old' country and is the only remaining place setting from that set of china.
3 Dancing Ladies
Germany
Grandma Reni
This beautiful ceramic statue of three dancing women was a wedding gift to my great grandmother from her mother. My great grandma lived in Czechoslovakia at the time, and after she wed, they moved to Germany. before the Nazi rule, where my Grandma Reni (my mom's mom) was born. When my great-grandma and grandma escaped Nazi Germany and traveled to Shanghai, China, it was one of the few things they were able to pack and send to America on the "lift", where it stayed in storage for 7 1/2 years till they were able to finally come to America. It is very important to my grandma because it is a wonderful memory of her father who did not survive.
This delicate statue was a wedding gift to my Great-Grandma from her mother. It represented a happy, carefree time in Germany; the happiness that was supposed to fill my Great-Grandparent's lives in the early 1900's, before the Nazi regime took over. It signified great hope for a beautiful married future for my Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa. They were supposed to have a life filled with dancing, happiness and love. It has come to be a reminder of my great-grandparents' amazing story during the Holocaust of love, hardship and survival. As delicate and fragile as this statue looked, it survived, just like my Grandma and Great Grandma survived. My great-grandpa did not survive. It also represents the importance of never forgetting my past; looking forward to a life filled with nachas and simchas, and always being hopeful and optimistic about our Jewish future.
Hebrew / Ladino Prayer Book
Austria
My Nona (Grandmother)
This prayer book belonged to my maternal great-grandparents Meyer and Sophie. They were born in Kastoria, Greece and came to New York as children around 1910. Their first language was Ladino, a medieval Spanish mixed with Hebrew, Aramaic, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Turkish, and Greek. Their ancestors were thrown out of Spain in 1492 during the Inquisition and were welcomed into Greece (part of the Ottoman Empire). Before my great-grandparents came to the U.S., their families had lived in Greece for about 400 years. Ladino is written with the Hebrew alphabet just as Yiddish is. In order to distinguish the Ladino side from the Hebrew side, the Ladino in this siddur is in Rashi script.
This siddur is a rare treasure because it is 122 years old, because it represents my Sephardic heritage, and because Ladino is a language in danger of extinction. No one in my family can speak Ladino any more, except for a few words such as "Nona" for grandma, "bano" for bath, or names of foods such as "Pastel" for a meat pie we make for Passover.