Tefillin Bag of Leib Millman

Born Khaye Rokhl Kratshteyn to a traditional family in the Bessarabian village of Samashkan (today in Moldova), Rachel, as she came to be known, married Louis (Leyb bar Gedaliah) Millman in 1907, the same year she embroidered him this tefillin bag. In 1912, they moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with their two children. Rachel owned and managed a small corner grocery store while Louis worked as a window washer. They ultimately retired to Van Nuys, California. This velvet tefillin bag is embroidered on one side with images of flowers; the reverse side contains the date and the imperial double-headed eagle, a symbol of both the Austro-Hungarian and the Russian Empire. The double-headed eagle is commonly found in Judaica from this period.