A Seder plate from Hamburg

There is no exact description of the Seder in 1948, but the surviving Seder plate stands witness.

By DAVID GEFFEN
A Seder plate from Hamburg (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A Seder plate from Hamburg
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Naftali Be’er, born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1920, became interested in art as a teenager. For Passover 1936, with the hell of Hitler already shadowing the Jewish community, he made a Seder plate/matza “tower” for his family out of aluminum; by that year, Jews were no longer permitted to work in gold and silver. Through 1938, the plate was a central feature of their Seder.
That same plate was on display last week at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, where a session of the center’s regular Monday night forum focused on Jerusalem Seders from 1948.
Be’er, who died in Jerusalem in March 2014 and was one of a set of triplets, displayed extensive artistic talent at his Hamburg high school. In 1938, he decided that he wanted to study at the capital’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. He applied and gained acceptance, and the British Mandate government notified him that he would receive a visa to travel to Palestine. The Nazi authorities accepted the visa and permitted him to leave the country.
Be’er was a student at Bezalel from 1938 to 1940, completing his studies under David M. Gumbel, who headed the school’s department of gold- and silversmithery from 1936 to 1955.
Following his certification as a jeweler, he worked in Gumbel’s studio in Jerusalem.
In fact, Be’er was the one who created the case that houses Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Because of his calligraphic expertise, he also wrote out the second version of the Declaration of Independence on parchment (the original one that David Ben- Gurion read in 1948 is on paper).
Between World War II and the establishment of the state, Be’er served in various underground movements, including the Irgun Zva’i Leumi and the Hagana. He hand-wrote placards challenging British rule, and these were hung throughout the country.
Shortly before World War II, his father, Dr. Yitzhak Be’er, a dentist, was able to leave Germany and bring his wife and the other children to Palestine. He did not forget the Seder plate and received a special permit from the Nazi authorities to take it with him.
The senior Be’er, who was even permitted to bring his German dental chair with him, rented an apartment on Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Street in the capital’s Rehavia neighborhood, where the family lived and he had his office. From their arrival in Jerusalem, each Seder was adorned with Naftali’s Passover creation from Germany.
Enduring the 1948 siege of the city like everyone else, Naftali’s mother, Sheindel, penned a letter to a relative outside Jerusalem.
The letter – written in English, one of several languages she knew – includes a description of the terror that reigned because of the frequent bombings and because of the sniper attacks from the Old City walls.
There is no exact description of the Seder in 1948, but the surviving Seder plate stands witness. After it sat in storage for many years, Be’er’s children took it out and gave it to Shoshana Dolgin-Be’er, his second wife, to whom he was married for 27 years. She gave permission to display it at the Fuchsberg Center.