Kiddush cup

The cup comes from Kalisz and bears an inscription in Yiddish: In memory of the bar mitzvah of Herszl Groman. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Victims Database mentions a boy with the same name and surname, the son of Chanan and Mindla, a student who lived in Kalisz before the outbreak of World War II.

The first Jews settled in Kalisz in the first half of the 12th century. The Jewish community in Kalisz developed dynamically and had numerous political, cultural, sports and educational organizations. In Hila Marcinkowska's book Wieczni tułacze. Powojenna emigracja polskich Żydów [Eternal Wanderers. Post-War Emigration of Polish Jews] (Warsaw 2019) describes the lives of surviving Jews from Kalisz, including Iska Widawska (her family arrived in the city in the 19th century). The book illustrates well the connection between Kalisz Jews and their place of origin. For more information about the Jewish community in Kalisz, visit the Virtual Shtetl website at https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/k/831-kalisz/99-historia-spolecznosci/137430-historia-spolecznosci.

The presented cup was given on the occasion of a bar mitzvah, a ceremony which takes place after a boy turns 13. After the ceremony, he was considered an adult according to the religious law and could perform kiddush. The cup was commissioned by the meat guild, an important group for the Jewish community. Due to the religious rules concerning meat consumption, the profession of butchers (specialists in ritual slaughter) enjoyed the respect of the Jewish community.

Natalia Różańska