A little while back our buddy Allan sent me an email titled "Alte zachen", old clothes. Allan is a mucky muck on the staff of Hebrew College in Boston. I don't exactly remember his title but he is a wonderful teacher of texts and also of the complicated work of how one is a rabbi in a community.
All Jewish institutions become the recipients of old Jewish stuff from dead Jews ( to put it crudely). Someone dies and their the work of closing out a house is overwhelming. There is always tons of stuff that the descendants won't want but clearly should not be thrown away. Old prayer books, ancient Hebrew or Yiddish primers, songsters from the early years of the twentieth century, rayon tallitot that were worn once at a 1930's bar-mitzvah still in the original box, souvenirs from long ago trips to Israel, and Jewish art of varying quality all end up on the doorstep of Jewish institutions.
These challah covers arrived at Hebrew College in a box of old Jewish books.
Allan asked me if I knew what these were, and did I want them.
My answer to both questions was a resounding "YES!". I knew exactly what I was looking at.
Many years ago my cousin gave me this challah cover that her in-laws had purchased on a visit to what was then called Palestine from their home in Vienna. I believe the trip took place in the late 1920's or the early 1930's.
I fell in love with this challah cover the first time I laid eyes on it. It is a cacophony of texts and fonts. This challah cover contains every text you might possibly say before the challah is uncovered. There is kiddush for Shabbat and the one you say for festivals, the is the blessing for candle lighting and the kavanah intentional private prayer for women to recite afterwards. There are images of various holy places
There are even the prayers for lighting Chanukah candles. One of the reasons this challah cover especially speaks to me is that it has been slightly distorted during the printing. It's a party of terrible late 19th/early 20th century graphic design--and I LOVE it.
The two challah covers Allan showed me were of similar vintage. The larger red one was made as a premium for people who donated money to the Central Committee Knesseth Israel, Jerusalem, Palestine.
A little bit of digging on Google taught me a bit about this organization which was founded just after WWI to raise funds for poor Jews in Palestine. It's primary focus was helping Orthodox Jews. The war had created havoc on the Jewish community in Israel. They were at various times during the war rounded up and expelled from various areas in the country including the city of Jaffa.
Before the Russian Revolution, most of the Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem were Russian Orhtodox. They spent their tourist dollars lavishly buying souveniers, staying in hotels, eating food doing all of the good stuff that tourist dollars do. After the revolution all of that cash funneled into the Jerusalem and Holy Land) economy just dried up. People were suffering. So there was a need for donations from the outside to help maintain the community.
Apparently this organization was in existence until 1950 until it got folded into the Israeli government social services wing.
This salmon pink challah cover was a tourist item like the blue one I inherited from my cousin.The printing quality is better but there are fewer texts and fewer depictions of holy places.
I assume that these were printed in a a print shop that also printed invitations and handbills and advertisements. Clearly there were lots of variations on a theme. You could select the holy places depicted and the blessings included on your batch of challah covers. I would not be surprised if the same shop didn't create similar devotional goods for Christians, Orthodox Christian, Protestants and Roman Catholics. One could create a run of fifty or a hundred, printed on cotton or rayon satin and then contract to get them stitched up, backed and embellished with a bit of fringe.
The two matza covers are donor gifts from the Kamanetz yeshiva.
And of course I did Google this Yeshivah which had begun in Slobodka about 150 years ago and then relocated to Kamanetz ( where some of my ancestors hail from) just after WWI. During WWII the Yeshivah relocated both to New York and to Jerusalem. I assume that these two were made in the 1940's. They were old fashioned looking when they were new.
Last weekend Allan gave me the four treasures.
Yesterday, I backed and fringed the red one. I love it. It has the original Shabbat candle wax stains which I kept. I thought that black fringe was the right choice--the red is kind of crazy so any choice is a tacky one--so I jumped in with both feet with the black.
I could not be happier.
If you would be sitting at our table tonight you would be eating beef- cooked but not sliced as I type this, challah that will be covered by the red challah cover.
By the time we eat,
this will be a rice and barley pilaf.
I baked a made up cranberry spice cake.
Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the cake broke while I took it out of the pan. I put the broken part in the background so you can pretend you don't see it and just focus on the pretty parts of the cake.
Shabbat Shalom!
All Jewish institutions become the recipients of old Jewish stuff from dead Jews ( to put it crudely). Someone dies and their the work of closing out a house is overwhelming. There is always tons of stuff that the descendants won't want but clearly should not be thrown away. Old prayer books, ancient Hebrew or Yiddish primers, songsters from the early years of the twentieth century, rayon tallitot that were worn once at a 1930's bar-mitzvah still in the original box, souvenirs from long ago trips to Israel, and Jewish art of varying quality all end up on the doorstep of Jewish institutions.
These challah covers arrived at Hebrew College in a box of old Jewish books.
Allan asked me if I knew what these were, and did I want them.
Many years ago my cousin gave me this challah cover that her in-laws had purchased on a visit to what was then called Palestine from their home in Vienna. I believe the trip took place in the late 1920's or the early 1930's.
The two challah covers Allan showed me were of similar vintage. The larger red one was made as a premium for people who donated money to the Central Committee Knesseth Israel, Jerusalem, Palestine.
A little bit of digging on Google taught me a bit about this organization which was founded just after WWI to raise funds for poor Jews in Palestine. It's primary focus was helping Orthodox Jews. The war had created havoc on the Jewish community in Israel. They were at various times during the war rounded up and expelled from various areas in the country including the city of Jaffa.
Before the Russian Revolution, most of the Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem were Russian Orhtodox. They spent their tourist dollars lavishly buying souveniers, staying in hotels, eating food doing all of the good stuff that tourist dollars do. After the revolution all of that cash funneled into the Jerusalem and Holy Land) economy just dried up. People were suffering. So there was a need for donations from the outside to help maintain the community.
Apparently this organization was in existence until 1950 until it got folded into the Israeli government social services wing.
This salmon pink challah cover was a tourist item like the blue one I inherited from my cousin.The printing quality is better but there are fewer texts and fewer depictions of holy places.
I assume that these were printed in a a print shop that also printed invitations and handbills and advertisements. Clearly there were lots of variations on a theme. You could select the holy places depicted and the blessings included on your batch of challah covers. I would not be surprised if the same shop didn't create similar devotional goods for Christians, Orthodox Christian, Protestants and Roman Catholics. One could create a run of fifty or a hundred, printed on cotton or rayon satin and then contract to get them stitched up, backed and embellished with a bit of fringe.
The two matza covers are donor gifts from the Kamanetz yeshiva.
Last weekend Allan gave me the four treasures.
Yesterday, I backed and fringed the red one. I love it. It has the original Shabbat candle wax stains which I kept. I thought that black fringe was the right choice--the red is kind of crazy so any choice is a tacky one--so I jumped in with both feet with the black.
I backed it with an African waxed cotton print in purple of stylized eyes.
If you would be sitting at our table tonight you would be eating beef- cooked but not sliced as I type this, challah that will be covered by the red challah cover.
By the time we eat,
I baked a made up cranberry spice cake.
Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the cake broke while I took it out of the pan. I put the broken part in the background so you can pretend you don't see it and just focus on the pretty parts of the cake.
Shabbat Shalom!
What treasurers to have. Thank you for the history of these covers. I think the black fringe is just right.
ReplyDeleteThank you. We used the red cover Friday night and it gave me a great deal of joy. One of our guests has done a great deal of graphic design and he joined me in admiring how many current rules of design were breached in this piece.
ReplyDelete