Photograph: Hakham’s family

European Jews: Krymchaks

Taurida province, Simferopolsky district, city Karasubazar

1899

Albumen print

21,2 x 25,4

РЭМ 9187-5

Photo from the “Album of Memories of the Hakham of Karasubazar. Scenes and views before his departure for Jerusalem in 1899.” In the center are the Hakham with his wife and his eldest daughter Luna (wearing spectacles), on the Chacham’s right are his daughters Ester-Meriam and Hanna-Lie with children. Standing (left to right) are the daughters’ husbands: Sholoma Achkinazi (merchant, praying house’s warden?), David Pesach (merchant) and Nissim Levi ben Mordecai Chakhchir (author of liturgical books, translations from Hebrew into the Krymchak language). Seated in the foreground are the Hakham’s grandchildren Akiva, Avraam, Eliav, Kursi, and Ishai. The daughters and their husbands are dressed in traditional clothes typical for the Krymchaks in the late 19th century. The men are wearing European style costumes; their headgear are short and round astrakhan hats. The boys are in suits with short trousers, with woolen Turkish fez on their heads; the girls’ fez are of velvet, decorated with gold coins or a brocade band with gilt tinsel thread tassels. The Chacham’s eldest daughter Luna is dressed in a jacket with a skirt and an apron; the daughters holding children in their arms are wearing European style dresses. All the women have on their heads a “bash-bag’y,” traditional headgear of married women, consisting of several elements. They are a cap with the hair tucked to under it, a strand of black threads on the forehead, a cap band as a cushion for building a tall hairdo, over which a large kerchief was put on. Two daughters have decorations of gold coins on their necks.