Objects Tell Stories

Objects can tell stories. Objects can hold memories, meanings stories and they can create connections between the present and the past. Museums can ANU collect these objects, care for them, showcase them, and use them to help people understand the world around them and the people and times that came before them. We are going to look at objects and learn to tell their stories or the stories that they represent.

Everyone has objects that are dear to them: objects which have been handed down through the family, have survived a journey, been given by a loved one or kept to commemorate an important time.  They hold meaning for their owners who tell stories about them based on their personal significance or importance to the family or community. 

Some objects acquire great symbolic significance. Some objects take on enormous significance. The menorah is one such object. In the Torah, during the Jew’s time with Moses’ time in the Sinai desert, Moses received divine instructions on the construction and design of a sanctuary and the menorah. Since this time the menorah has become a representation of the Jewish people, their religion, their experiences in exile, and the state of Israel.  

Let's look at some objects and see if we can put stories and meaning to them. The instructor will display for the students a wide range of random objects to the class. There should be a lot of objects to choose from. The more random the objects the better. Students are instructed to come to the objects and choose one that represents something about them. Give examples with the objects that are presented; for example if there is a frying pan the teacher can say how this pan reminds them of cooking and that they cook for their family, a paint brush can be a reminder of the artistic talents that they possess and how they enjoy doing art in their free time, a doll may remind you of how you have a very strong imagination, etc. Each student is called up to tell something about themselves that is related to one of the objects presented. After every student has had a turn we will move onto objects from the museum.

Now we look at objects from the museum that tell amazing stories. Let’s imagine the stories from some of the objects that you can see in the ANU Museum of the Jewish People. Choose an object from the group of objects available in the Additional Resources section. You will answer the following questions for each object:

What is the object? (I have chosen a ring.)

Do you have an object in your family that this object reminds you of? What is the story of the object that you have? (I have family jewelry that was given to me by a relative. It moved with her to 3 different countries.)

Who do you think owned it? (I think it was owned by a wealthy woman in Europe.)

Why do you think it was important to them? (I think it was very important to her because her children gave it to her to remind her that they love her to the moon and back.)

What do you think is the story behind the object? (I think that this object has passed down 4 generations. It has a Jewish star on it because Judaism was important to her and it has a moon because she would read a book to her kids every night telling  them that she would love them to the moon and back.)

Students should share the objects they choose in a similar manner, either with the whole class or in small groups. Objects can and should be used more than once to hear the different ideas that the students have.

Now lets talk about the actual story on one object that is in our museum collections: this pendant shows the image of Mohammad’s daughter, Fatima. Masshad is an orthodox Muslim city in Iran. In 1734 the shah of Iran invited a number of Jewish families to live in Masshad in order to manage his treasures. However, not long after the move the Shah was assassinated and the Jews began to suffer from harassment by the Muslims. In 1839, on Eid al-Adha (The Feast of Sacrifice), hundreds of Muslims left the mosque to kill Jews living in the city. After the pogrom, the Jews were given two options: convert to Islam or die. The surviving Jews decided to appear to convert, thus choosing to live. The Jews of Masshad lived in a ghetto and were known as Jadid al-Islam (New Muslims). They lived a double life, outwardly behaving as Muslims while privately retaining their Jewish beliefs. On Fridays they went to the mosque and immediately afterwards they conducted the welcoming of the Sabbath and the Kiddush at home. They opened their shops on Shabbat, leaving a child in the shop who would tell Muslim customers, “Dad will be back soon”, until the Muslims would get tired of waiting and go to another store. The women played a significant role in preserving Judaism. Muslim women wore the chador (a full-body cloak worn by many Iranian Muslims) which covers the whole body, and thus Jewish women wearing the chador could smuggle the items needed by the community from house to house: prayer shawls, Torah scrolls, Kosher meat and more. The pendant that we see here was worn by the Jewish woman in the streets of Mashhad in order to be identified as a Muslim. Over the years, the Jews suffered from continuous harassment, and in 1946, after another pogrom or blood libel, the remaining Masshad Jews decided to leave the city. Some left for Tehran, Europe and the US, whilst most of them went to Israel.