Embroidered brown velvet tallit pouch used by a Jewish immigrant

Object | Accession Number: 2012.72.10

Overview

Brief Narrative: Brown velvet tallit pouch with an embroidered Star of David and Hebrew text used by Samuel Eckstein, who immigrated to the United States from Ratno, Russia (Ratne, Ukraine) in 1908, and settled in Colorado. Tallit are prayer shawls worn by Jewish males durng services. Samuel was joined in 1912 by his wife, Edna (Yetta) Kwasznik Eckstein, and their young son.
Date: emigration: 1908
Geography: use: Denver (Colo.)
creation: Ratne (Ukraine)
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Samuel Veta
Contributor: Subject: Samuel Eckstein
Biography: Shlomo (Samuel) Eckstein was born about January 15, 1878, in Ratno, Russia (Ratne, Ukraine) to a Jewish family. He married Yetta (Yitke) Kwasznik on June 15, 1906. Yetta was born approximately June 26, 1885, in Ratno to a Jewish family. She had a younger brother Motel, born in 1888. A son, Edmund (Edward), was born in the fall of 1907. The next year, Samuel immigrated to the United States, sailing from Hamburg, Germany, and arriving in New York on May 25, 1908. He settled in Denver, Colorado. Yetta and Edmund joined him there in 1921. Yetta began to use the name Edna. Samuel was a laborer and eventually a driver with the Teamsters union. The couple had four more children: Rebecca, (April 16, 1913- September 12, 1971), Annie born 1915, Isadore, born 1918, and Abraham, born 1922. Rebecca (Betty) married Leo Veta and they adopted an infant girl and, in 1950, an infant boy, whom they named Samuel. Samuel’s biological mother, Ruth Haneman, had fled Nazi Germany with her family for Shanghai, China. Both her parents died in Shanghai in 1943, leaving sixteen year old Ruth responsible for her younger siblings. Samuel, age 68, died on March 9, 1946. Edna, age 92, died on January 12, 1977.

Physical Details

Language: Hebrew
Classification: Jewish Art and Symbolism
Category: Jewish ceremonial objects
Object Type: Tallith bags (lcsh)
Physical Description: Light brown velvet, faded and well worn tallit pouch with one open end with a flap closure, lined with white cloth. A Star of David with Hebrew text in the center is embroidered on the front in yellow thread. Velcro strips were later sewn on the interior and exterior of the opening.
Dimensions: overall: Height: 11.125 inches (28.258 cm) | Width: 8.375 inches (21.273 cm)
Materials: overall : velvet, cloth, thread, velcro (tm)
Inscription: front, center, embroidered, yellow thread : ח ־ ט ל (tallit)

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use: No restrictions on use

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Immigrants--Russia--United States--Biography. Jews--United States--Biography.
Geographic Name: Russia--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century. United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The tallit bag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Samuel Veta, the son of Ruth Haneman and the grandson of Edna and Samuel Eckstein.

Record last modified:: 2022-08-02 16:31:31
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn47028

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Also in Ruth Haneman and Edna Eckstein family collection

The collection consists of documents, correspondence, and photographs relating to the experiences of Ruth Haneman and her family, who fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai and, after the war, emigrated to the United States, and of artifacts, correspondence, and photographs relating to the experiences of Edna Kwasznik and Samuel Eckstein in Russia and then the United States during the early 20th century.

Date: approximately 1906-1958

Eckstein and Haneman family papers

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Collection of photographs, documents, and correspondence relating to the Haneman family from Berlin, who immigrated to Shanghai in 1939; Ruth Haneman was the donor's biological mother. Among the documents are Japanese visas; registration documentation; passports; and a death announcement for Charlotte Hanemen from the "Shanghai Jewish Chronicle," dated September 10, 1944. The collection also includes material concerning the Echstein (donor's) maternal adoptive family, which immigrated to the United States from Ratno, Poland; includes photographs; letters; and a Ketubah between Yutta Itka Kwasznik and Shlomo Samuel Eckstein (donor's adoptive grandparents), signed in Ratno, Poland on June 15, 1906.

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