Painting
Dated 1834, these candlesticks were originally my great-great grandmother Sura Enka's. She left them for her eldest granddaugher, Rochel, my Bubby's older sister, who was killed in a Pogrom in Russia. My Bubby came with them to America in 1929. She lit them every Shabbas, living in Coney Island, N.Y., once a vibrant Jewish community. My grandfather's grandparents, Max and Magdalena Rosen, owned the hotel in which they lived until 1969, when Mayor Lindsay bought it over and paved paradise and put up a parking lot. During her lifetime, my great-grandmother and my Bubby attended to the usual crowds of 60 for a typical Shabbas. In 1987, my Bubby called me frantically at 11 p.m. afraid for her life, as the woman attendant taking care of her was beating her. She begged me to come and take the candlesticks before they were stolen. I very reluctantly conceded and made a promise to light them every Shabbas. This watercolor was dedicated to my daughter. The letters in Hebrew spell, the light of Shabbas and the light of daughter.