Decorative Items
These items are used to decorate the home.
Chagall Window Tray
Israel
Great Grandmother Selma
This beautiful rectangular shaped white tray with raised sides has photos of some of the Chagall windows at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. The back of the tray is stamped with "Melabel produced for Palphot." The tray is 4" x 6" and is very colorful, and includes green, white, brown, yellow and blue stained glass. A wire piece is attached to the top of the tray for hanging on the wall.
In 1977, my mother's grandmother, Nana Selma, went to Israel to celebrate her grandson's Bar Mitzvah. On their trip, they went to Hadassah Hospital and purchased this small tray as a souvenir. It hung on my great-grandmother's wall until she passed away. Then, my mother was given it to display in our home. This tray is quite meaningful to my mother because she has four generations of Hadassah women in her family, and she remembers her own mother doing a needlepoint of the Chagall windows.
Blessings for the Home Brass Wall Plaque
Israel
Great-Grandmother Selma
This brass, green, red, white and blue enamel 4" x 4" wall plaque has a hamsa in the center, decorated with the Birkat HaBayit, the Blessings for the Home, written in Hebrew. Surrounding the hamsa is a horseshoe with an eye at the top center. On either side of the horseshoe are a fish and two red stars surrounding a green moon. A chain for hanging the plaque is secured at the top.
This golden plaque wall decoration hung in my great-grandmother, Nana Selma's home until she passed away. She purchased it in 1977 on her trip to Israel to celebrate her grandson's Bar Mitzvah. My mother remembers seeing this special decoration in her grandmother's kitchen every time she visited. My great-grandmother was an Orthodox, observant woman, and this artifact reminds my mother of her.