A Collection of Greek Memorial and Dedication Plaques, Late 19th-Early 20th Century

Shaddayyot, also known as takhshitim, are silver votive ornaments created by members of the Romaniote Jewish communities of Greece. Often, they were used to decorate a parokhet (Torah ark curtain), Torah scroll mantle, or other synagogue textile and bore a dedicatory inscription giving the name of the donor, the date (usually a holiday or significant lifecycle event), and the purpose of the donation (“in memory of,” “as a personal merit for,” etc.). The custom seems to have originated in the early seventeenth century, perhaps in imitation of Greek Orthodox votive offerings known as tamata.

The present collection of twenty-six shaddayyot apparently derive entirely from Ioannina, an ancient Greek Jewish community that maintained a distinct prayer rite and customs referred to as Romaniote. The city’s “old synagogue” was located within the local Byzantine citadel, while the “new synagogue” was built outside Ioannina’s old city walls.

The following summarizes the inscriptions on these shaddayyot, listed in chronological order:

1: donated by Raphael Eliasaph in memory of his son Eliasaph Raphael, his father and mother, and his daughters and as a personal merit for himself and his children, Passover 5484 (April 1724)

2: donated by Esther in memory of her husband Raphael Isaac, his brother Solomon, and her sister Rebecca, 5516 (1756)

3: donated by Jeshuah Mordechai Yitshaki, Passover 5556 (April 1796)

4: donated by Menahem Moses in the old synagogue, Shavuot 5564 (May 1804)

5: donated by Solomon Joseph Nigrin as a personal merit for himself and his children in the old synagogue, Shavuot 5572 (May 1812)

6: donated by Mordechai Hanin Yitshaki as a personal merit for himself and his children and in memory of his daughter Rachel in the old synagogue, Sukkot [5]574 (October 1813)

7: donated by Michael Yesula as a personal merit for himself and his father and brother in the old synagogue of Ioannina, Passover 5574 (April 1814)

8: donated by Isaac Solomon as a personal merit for himself and his son and in memory of his brother Moses Solomon and of his father and mother in the old synagogue, Sukkot 5577 (October 1816)

9: donated by Solomon Meir as a personal merit for himself and his father in the old synagogue, Sukkot [5]577 (October 1816)

10: donated by Mattithiah Yesula in memory of his father Yesula Michael, Rosh Hashanah 5595 (October 1834)

11: donated by Dr. Elijah Abraham de Castro in the old synagogue, Shavuot 5603 (June 1843)

12: donated by Joseph Samuel ha-Levi in memory of his daughter Hido[?] in the old synagogue, Passover [5]609 (April 1849)

13: donated by Satamo, wife of Moses Asher, in memory of her daughter Rosa in the old synagogue of Ioannina, 19 Tammuz 5611 (July 19, 1851)

14: donated by Rebecca, wife of Raphael Johanan Russo, in memory of her daughter Hannah in the old synagogue of Ioannina, Passover 5625 (April 1865)

15: donated by Moses Samuel as a personal merit for himself and his father and mother in the old synagogue of Ioannina, Sukkot 5626 (October 1865)

16: donated by Gabriel Judah ha-Levi as a personal merit for himself in the old synagogue, Parashat Yitro [5]627 (January 26, 1867)

17: donated by Mazzal Tov, wife of Samuel Solomon, as a personal merit for themselves in the old synagogue, Erev Shavuot 5673 (June 10, 1913)

18: donated by Hayyim Jeshuah Kohen, Tammuz 5674 (June 1914), Preveza [about 100km south of Ioannina], dedicated Rosh Hashanah 5675 (September 1914)

19: donated by Sarah, wife of Uriel Samuel Battinou, in memory of her brother Moses Solomon Meir, who passed away in Trikala on 20 Tevet 5675 (January 6, 1915), Ioannina

20: donated by Abraham Judah and his wife Rebecca in memory of her daughter Dinah and her father Samuel Menahem Matsa in the new synagogue, 1 Nisan 5675 (March 16, 1915)

21: donated by Hayyim Raphael Nigrin in memory of his wife Rachel in the old synagogue, Passover 5675 (March 1915)

22: donated by Mazzal Tov, wife of Isaac ben Samuel, and Esther, wife of Mattithiah ben Raphael, in memory of their mother Sarah in the new synagogue, Shavuot 5675 (May 1915)

23: donated by Sarah, wife of Yesula Moses Mattithiah, who passed away in Patras on 17 Heshvan 5679 (October 23, 1918), in the new synagogue of Ioannina, Shabbat Nahamu 5679 (August 9, 1919)

24: donated by Judah Elijah Jacob as a personal merit for himself and his wife and family and in memory of all of his departed relatives in the old synagogue, 15 Shevat 5692 (January 23, 1932)

25: donated by Leah, wife of Judah Elijah Jacob, as a personal merit for herself and her husband and family in the old synagogue, 15 Shevat 5692 (January 23, 1932)

26: donated by Satamo, wife of Jacob Tsaddik Nigrin, as a personal merit for herself and her family in the old synagogue, 11 Adar II 5692 (March 19, 1932)

Accompanied by a North African[?] plaque: "This Torah ark curtain was made by Mr. Abdullah Ezekiel Sofer, may God keep and sustain him, in memory of his departed wife Farha, may her soul be bound up in the Bond of Life, who passed away on 25 Menahem [Av] 5675 AM [August 5, 1915]."

Bibliography

Ariella Amar and Irina Chernetsky, Shadai’ot, the Collection of the Jewish Museum of Greece: Documentation of the Index for Jewish Art (Jerusalem: Center for Jewish Art, 2006).

Ariella Amar, “‘And When it Goeth into the Sanctuary’: Special Donations among the Romaniotes,” in The Jewish Museum of Greece Guide (Athens: The Jewish Museum of Greece, 2013), 74-79.

Ariella Amar, “Sacrificial Donations among the Romaniot Jews,” Studia Rosenthaliana 45 (2014): 91-114.

Zanet Battinou and Christina Meri, “Seeking Protection: Shaddayot and Alephiot in the Romaniote World,” in Shalom Sabar, Emile Schrijver, and Falk Wiesemann (eds.), Windows on Jewish Worlds: Essays in Honor of William Gross, Collector of Judaica, on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2019), 322-333.