Place of origin: Turkmenistan
Audio transcript:
This menorah from Turkmenistan in the early twentieth century, with its gemstone ornamentation, is a very characteristic example of Judaica produced in Central Asia. People living in what is now Turkmenistan have been incorporating gemstones in jewelry for centuries, ever since nomadic Turkmen tribes came into contact with Middle Eastern population centers and learned more about the craft of metalwork.
Some gemstones are used because of an ascribed mystical property, such as carnelian which is believed to ward off death and disease. Other gemstones function for their associations with a trait, like turquoise which represents purity. Despite eventual Islamic control of Turkmenistan, the tribal practice of using gemstones in conjunction with spirituality has continued.
The history of Judaism in Turkmenistan begins in the 1830s when Jews first immigrated there to escape persecution in Persia. Not much is known about Turkmen history throughout most of the twentieth century because Turkmenistan was a part of the Soviet Union from the early 1920s until its dissolution in 1991.
From the twentieth-century Judaica produced in Turkmenistan, we can see that Jews living there were adapting to the materials and traditional styles of the territory. If you look around the display, you can see several other examples of Judaica made with gemstones, most coming from Turkmenistan or nearby regions in Central Asia.