Torah crown. Kamenets-Podolsk (Kamianets-Podilskyi), Russian Empire (today Ukraine), 1872; dedicatory inscription from Edineț, Bessarabia, today Moldova, ca. 1890.
Silver, cut, stamped, and engraved (several hallmarks of Kamenets-Podolsk, assayer's marks of Ivan Chertenkov, dated 1872; and an additional, partial mark in Cyrillic script, apparently a maker’s mark); gilt.
Large, magnificent Torah crown, with a design characteristic of such crowns from Galicia (southern Poland and Ukraine). With a tall, circular, gilt base. Onto this, figurative ornaments are attached with rivets. Prominent among these are a set of animals enclosed within frames consisting of architectonic columns and arches, including: an antelope under a tree, a ram, a deer, lions, and an ox. The animals are separated by vases of flowers, with vegetal patterns above them. The crown has six half-arches, decorated in a technique similar to that of the base, with matching vegetally-patterned ornaments attached, and with a pair of birds appearing on each half-arch. Above the half-arches is a flat ornament – an encircled Star of David – surmounted by pitcher with two handles. Inside the pitcher is another flat ornament – a flower – surmounted by a large, cast, crowned, two-headed eagle, imprinted on either face with the Hebrew initials "kaf-tav" and "kaf-mem" [representing "Keter Torah" and "Keter Malkhut" ("Crown of Torah" and "Crown of Royalty", respectively)].
Dedicatory inscriptions (Hebrew), dating from different periods, are engraved along the lower border. The clearer one is the upper inscription, dedicated to victims of the Holocaust: "This is a gift of Rabbi Moshe HaKohen for the sake of the souls of his wife Shayneh and his sons who perished in the year[s] 5701-5702, 1941"; Underneath this is one earlier inscription, "Henia Enid daughter of Shemuel HaLevi passed away 9th Kislev of year 5650 [1889]"; and an additional early inscription, faded and difficult to decipher, "Yitzhak Meir son of Menashe HaLevi Bronstein, passed away 6th Cheshvan of year 5651 [1890] Edineț".
Some 7,379 Jews lived in Edinet, northern Moldova, in 1897; at this time, Jews represented roughly 70% of the population of the town. But the Jewish population steadily declined up until WWII, whereupon many Jews were murdered, while the remainder were concentrated in the town ghetto from where they were deported to Transnistria.
Both the decorative technique and figurative motifs characterizing the present crown can be found in various Torah crowns originating from Galicia and dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Similar Torah crowns, from the collection of the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine (today the Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine), Kiev, were put on display at an exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (KHM Vienna) in 1993. For comparison, see: Wilfried Seipel, ed., "Thora und Krone: Kultgeräte der jüdischen Diaspora in der Ukraine: eine Ausstellung des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien", exhibition catalogue, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1993 (German), Kat. Nr. 5 (pp. 70-71), Kat. Nr. 9 (pp. 82-83).
Height: 30 cm. Diameter at base: 14-17 cm. Maximal width: 18.5 cm. Weight: 1161 g. Fair-good condition. Slight deformities and minor warping. Cracks and fractures to silver in several spots, several missing pieces, particularly to ornaments near bases of half-arches. Old soldering repairs, fractures, and more recent screws to joints of half-arches. Loose screw joints and more recent nut to attachment of uppermost ornament. Bell missing from upper ornament. Minor fractures to silver ornaments along base, but most figurative ornaments intact.
