1839Mashhad
In 1839 the Jewish community of Mashhad, four hundred families, was forced to convert publicly to Islam in what came to be known as the Allahdad. For more than a century they lived as Anussim: outwardly Muslim, secretly keeping Shabbat behind closed doors. Much of the work of preserving Jewish identity fell to the women: basement synagogues, matzot baked at night and carried under their cloaks, brides' hair plaited and hennaed, children midwived into the world.
1910Mashhad
My great-grandmother, Haji Bibi Rivka Haruni (1910-1992), lived through it. Born in Mashhad, married at thirteen, mother of eight, she would later write the story of her life by hand in Jadidi (Sephardic cursive). Her husband's grandmother, known to the community as Rahel Mashade, bought off Pesach pogroms with gifts to the chief of the city and ran a secret synagogue out of her basement for thirty years. Her mother-in-law, Rahel Mashade the Second, midwived three hundred babies into the world and quietly taught the women of Mashhad to wash and dress the dead, so the community would not be left without that mitzvah.
1937Bombay
In 1937 Rivka fled Mashhad on a horse and cart with her young children, to reunite with her husband Moshe, who had gone ahead to Bombay three years earlier seeking a new beginning for his family. Among the few treasures she could carry, she took her Zardozi-embroidered wedding gown. The family made their life alongside the Iraqi Jewish community until their stability was cut short when Moshe died suddenly, leaving Rivka to raise their children alone.
1949Israel
Following Moshe's passing, Rivka set out once more, leaving Bombay behind and arriving in the newly-established State of Israel in 1949. Life in the young nation was hard and opportunities were few; determined to support her family, she later joined her son in London, where he was building a gemstone business, and remained there for the rest of her life. She lived to see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren born into a world where they could be openly Jewish. The craft she had grown up around, Zardozi, is gold and silver hand-embroidery whose very name is Persian (zar for gold, dozi for sewing). It had travelled east from Persia to India centuries before our family did. It carried the warmth of the same land.
1993Jerusalem
In 1993 my mother Liora came to Jerusalem on Erev Yom Kippur. She knew, that evening, that she was home. I was born here, the first of our family born in Israel.
2022Malqeta Founded
When my military service ended, Liora asked me to join her in giving this embroidery new life: challah covers for Shabbat tables around the world. What began as a conversation between mother and son became, quietly, something we hadn't expected.
2026Beit HaNassi
In 2026, a Malqeta challah cover was presented to President Isaac Herzog and the First Lady at their Residence in Jerusalem, and a second was given to them personally. For Liora it completed a circle: years earlier she had created the mosaic surrounding the Ark of the Presidential Synagogue, with me as a baby at her side.
“There is a thread, not only in the fabric, that connects all of this. Zardozi and Bibi share the same journey: both rooted in Persia, both carried through India, both arrived in Israel.”
“These past years have taught us what it takes to stand for our country, and for who we are. For me, Malqeta is that same work in a quieter language: carrying our heritage, our tradition, and our culture forward, proudly and unapologetically.”