Heart-shaped dedicatory plaque ("tass"), suspended so as to overhang a Torah ark curtain. Iraqi-Jewish community of Rangoon, Burma (today Yangon, Myanmar), 5693 [1933].
Sheet silver, cut, repoussé, and stamped.
Hebrew dedicatory inscription: "This is the plaque and Torah ark curtain [dedicated to] the elevation of… Shaul Elya Avraham Sofer may he rest in Eden [having] passed away on the Holy Sabbath / 12th of the month of Nissan 5693 [1933] / aged 55 years / may his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life." At the bottom of the plaque, encircling and inside a Star of David, is the Hebrew inscription giving the name of the "Synagogue… Musmeah Yeshua in the City of Rangoon." The two Hebrew initials of this synagogue appear inside two small Stars of David at the top of the plaque.
The Musmeah Yeshua ("Matzmiach Yeshua") Synagogue is the last surviving Jewish house of worship in the Lower City of Yangon, and, for that matter, the lone surviving synagogue in all of Myanmar. Established in 1857, it is nestled between private shops on a small street in the vicinity of the city center, and continues to serve the remaining members of Myanmar's tiny Jewish community, most of them descendants of Sephardic Iraqi Jews.
Length: 23.5 cm. Width: 21 cm. Good condition.
See also item nos. 121, 192.

23 postcards depicting Jews of Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia, as well as synagogues and Jewish sites. Various publishers and locales, [first half of 20th century].
These postcards feature portraits of Jewish individuals, in addition to Jewish sites in Bulgaria (Sofia, Burgas, Brod), as well as Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia (Sarajevo, Višegrad, Tuzla, Novi Sad, Zagreb, Vukovar, Bečej, Subotica, Niš). Three undivided-back postcards.
Average size: 9X14 cm. Condition varies.

Heart-shaped dedicatory plaque ("tass"), suspended so as to overhang Torah ark curtain. Syria, Lebanon, or vicinity, [ca. 1900-20].
Sheet silver, cut, repoussé, stamped and punched.
Hebrew dedicatory inscription "[…] dedicated by […] Salhah [in memory of] her father, Hakham David Tarab Maslaton […] and her mother […] Rina."
The Tarab-Maslaton family was a celebrated family of rabbis, renowned throughout the Near East. A number of noted members of the family served as chief rabbis of cities, including Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo, in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Length: 21 cm. Width: 23 cm. Good condition. Set in elegant wood-and-glass frame (not examined outside frame).
See also item nos. 121, 188.
Purchased from the A. Fogel Collection, Tel Aviv, April 1982.

Large vase, decorated with floral pattern and with Hebrew and Arabic inscriptions. Syria, [late 19th or early 20th century].
Copper, repoussé, polychrome enamel.
Stout vase, with body tapering toward rim. Body decorated with large flowers, interspersed with diagonal bands inscribed in alternating Hebrew – "Ben Porat Yosef" – and Arabic.
Height: 18 cm. Maximum width: approx. 35 cm. Blemishes and fractures to enamel decorations.

Plate with illustration of biblical spies bearing cluster of grapes. Syria, [early 20th century].
Copper, repoussé, polychrome enamel.
At center of plate, naïve-style illustration of the biblical spies bearing cluster of grapes, encircled by vegetal and geometric patterns.
Height: 30.5 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes.