Today, I have decided to start with an object that probably very few people have seen. It has been within our stores for many years, an object that preserves an aspect of the community’s heritage and history, that the museum feels it is important to safeguard.
A man named Jach Poyastro, who was a member of the Sephardi community, handmade this object in about 1930. Jach had migrated to London from Istanbul in the years before and was a carpet restorer and merchant. When Jach moved to London he set up a shop in Percy Street in W1 and made this object himself as a way to show his customers the expert methods he used to weave thin silk carpets. The object itself is beautiful and made from oak, with mother of pearl inlays, and stands at almost the same height as an A4 piece of paper. These quality materials and the time taken to create such an intricate piece show the pride Jach must have had in his work. While this object preserves Jach’s individual story it also represents a wider historical truth, the story of Jewish migrants and the skills they brought with them to the UK. This one object shows the level of expertise Jewish migrants contributed to British society and this is seen throughout our wider collection. Often, when in the museum stores, surrounded by the thousands of objects that have both these individual and collective histories, I’m in awe of what the Jewish community has both created and then chosen to preserve.
I doubt it ever crossed Jach’s mind that nearly 100 years later his model carpet weaver would be in the museum, preserving his own story, the wider Sephardi story, the migration narrative, and representing the contribution Jewish migrants made and continue to make to the UK. We have his nephew to thank, who saw the value of preserving this object, by reaching out to the museum to collect and preserve this heritage.
Frances Jeens is the interim director of the Jewish Museum London, in Camden which recently reopened to the public. Book your visit at jewishmuseum.org.uk
