Italy 1934 - 1944 Silver Jewish Passover Dish Antique Judaica Alessandria

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Italy 1934 - 1944 Silver Jewish Passover Dish Antique Judaica Alessandria :
$850.00

7.75 inches in diameter. Hallmark on rim as shown in the last photo, \"800\" for the silver, and the makers mark, which has the Italian government assigned number to the specific silversmith of this town, separating them is the ancient Roman symbol \"axe with birch sticks\", and then the abbreviation for the Italian town itself, \"AL\", which is Alessandria. This makers mark was only in use between 1934 and 1944.

An incredible find. Silver Italian Judaica is highly collectable. Those pieces tend to be from the late 19th century. I have never seen a piece like this, made so \"late\" in the history of Italian Jews. The center scene is cast into the silver dish, it being a well known image from the Middle Ages of Jews celebrating the Passover Seder at a long table. Around the rim, is the order of the Passover Service hand engraved. Due to the small size of this dish, it was obviously not used as the Seder tray itself, but perhaps for a large placement of bitter herbs or charoset, along side the Seder tray. Here is the history of the Jews of Alessandria during the time period this dish was made:

\"Between 1900 and 1938, the total of Jewish residents decreased from 868 to 101 according to Mussolini\'s census. Starting in 1938, the Jews suffered under the regime\'s anti-Jewish laws, but the final phase of persecution began only at the end of November 1943, after Minister of the Interior Buffarini Guidi ordered all provincial chiefs to send all Jews to the \"appropriate concentration camps.\" During the night of December 13, supporters of the German-imposed Italian Social Republic attacked the synagogue in the via Milano, destroying or stealing the silver objects. Books and precious manuscripts were burned in a great bonfire in Piazza Rattazzi that same evening. Also in December, 11 Jews from Alessandria were arrested and sent to Fossoli, from where they left for Auschwitz in February 1944; another six were seized by the Germans in the spring of 1944. The roundups continued in two other important old Jewish communities in the province of Alessandria. Twelve people were deported from Acqui, including the entire impoverished family of Arturo Bachi. Eighteen people were deported from Casale. In all, 48 Jews were deported from the entire province of Alessandria.\"