Salonica, in northern Greece, was home to a large Jewish population before World War II. This textile is one of four that may have been decorative hangings or banners in a Jewish public building or synagogue there. The design and color scheme imitate Macedonian embroidery. On November 2, 1918, Salonica’s Jews celebrated the first anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain endorsed the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. The banners may have been used in the citywide festivities, given the combination of the Star of David, a Zionist emblem, and the Macedonian style, conflating local pride with desire for a Jewish homeland.

BACKSTORY
One of a set of four textiles seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Greece; recovered at World War II’s end. As the Macedonian Jewish community had been destroyed, the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction organization placed three textiles in the Jewish Museum; the fourth was inadvertently separated from the group and is in the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.