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.