The letters comprising the candleholders spell out the name of a Jewish woman's organization, Ivriah (Jewess). When a 1925 survey revealed that the majority of Jewish children were not attending religious schools, the Jewish Education Association decided to target their mothers in an effort to increase interest in religious and cultural training. Using the slogan "The Jewish Mother of Today for the Jewish Mother of Tomorrow," the Women's Division of the Jewish Education Society founded Ivriah in 1926. Its primary activities were to increase registration in Jewish schools through community outreach, to provide symposia and lectures on Jewish culture for women, to raise scholarship funds for Jewish schools, and to run a children's school.
Although this lamp was made by casting, its hammered surface was meant to simulate the look of handcrafted metalwork that was being produced in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Such work was part of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which advocated a return to hand production in decorative arts after the late-nineteenth-century popularity of machine-stamped ware.