BIG MOMMA CHARITY - JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHER’S DAY!
Israeli history was shaped largely by charitable giving that sustained (and still sustains) communal institutions that seek to raise up impoverished communities. And this kind of giving was itself a means for creating a cohesive society. Before and in the first decades following Israel’s inception, the Jews moving to their ancient homeland from around the world often arrived with little by way of modern education, let alone the skills that they would need to survive in Israel’s economy.
One organization, AMIT (Americans for Israel and Torah) which took on that name only in 1980, came into being in the 1920s to provide special vocational and religious training to orphaned and immigrant children through schools, workshops, and children’s villages. It was the mother for children without mothers.
In Hebrew the acronym AMIT includes the word mother, and can be interpreted as the beginning of the word for “my mother” or “our mother.” These pendents were gifts to AMIT donors, which they were encouraged to wear to show that they supported this organization.
* “Mother in Israel” pendants, 1984 and 1985, YU MUSEUM colleciton
THE SUN IS SHINING AND THE BIRDS ARE CHIRPING. TIME TO BUST OUT THE SPRING CLOTHES.
Perhaps you might try this fantastic Yemenite-embroidered top on for size? The donor purchased this blouse during her honeymoon in a shop called Esther’s in Jerusalem. Many immigrant women earned money by embroidering articles of clothing using traditional decorative motifs to be purchased by tourists.
Blouse decorated with Yemenite embroidery
Israel, 1953
Collection of Yeshiva University Museum
Gift of Charlotte Schneierson
