Gift of Thomas G. and Louise J. Coffey in memory of H. Arthur Sandman
Hanukkah lamps of this type were found in many Eastern European synagogues before World War II. These lamps often featured a political emblem at the top, to express loyalty to the state. This lamp features the crowned eagle of Poland.
At the time this Hanukkah menorah, or Hanukkiah (ha-new-key-ah) in Hebrew, was made, the family that owned it most likely lived in a region of Eastern Europe controlled by the Habsburg Monarchy (also known as the Habsburg Empire). It was formally named the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (1772–1918).
By the 1920s this lamp had come into the possession of a Jewish attorney in Vienna, Austria. He then gave it to his daughter, who had recently married an American from Pittsburgh. The lamp thus escaped almost certain destruction by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The translation of the Hebrew text on the lamp’s base is as follows: “This is a donation of Fievel and his wife Esther Yenma, daughter of Zinvel to the Holy Society, Kindness and Truth [5]531 (1770/71).”
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