Lamps in the form of the Star of David are characteristic of the Bene Israel community, which is centered around Mumbai on the western coast of India. The star was adopted as the Zionist emblem at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, in 1897, although it had become popular on all types of ceremonial art even earlier in the nineteenth century. The inclusion of the word "Zion" with the star form may here reflect Zionist sympathies on the part of the Bene Israel community. However, interest in a Jewish homeland was tempered by fears that the Bene Israel would not be accepted in a Jewish state founded by western Jews.

A second lamp in the museum collection is a replica of this type, donated by a member of the Bene Israel community living in New York. Fearful that traditional forms were fast disappearing, he commissioned the lamp from a New Delhi metalsmith around 1980.