My item is a Jewish kiddush cup, which is used on different Jewish holidays to drink wine from after the kiddush prayer. This was given to my dad at the age of five by my Great-grandpa and Great-grandma. Every year for his birthday, his grandparents would fly to New Jersey from Israel to give him a new cup. This particular one is engraved 10-2-77, my dad’s birthday. It is also engraved “To Ron from Safta and Sabba”, which means grandpa and grandma in Hebrew. Back in 1977, a trip from Israel to New Jersey was a hard flight and very expensive. My dad’s grandparents didn’t have a lot of money either since both of their families had died in the Holocaust and were left in Palestine (now Israel) to find jobs before Israel was even a country. They worked as road makers. With the war going on with Lebanon, it made it harder because flying was more dangerous because of terrorism that was not uncommon then. Even now Israel is still at war with Lebanon. Yet, every year my dad was visited by his grandparents and given a new Kiddush cup. It taught my dad at such a young age that family and religion are so important. This Kiddush cup is still used today by my family during different Jewish holidays, and it serves as a reminder that you should put family above all else. By speaking to my dad he transformed a regular object into something with so much history.

– Ethan Beit

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant