Shir Hama’alos-Tsetl [protective amulet]. Amulet to be hung over a newborn’s bassinet.

Shir Hama’alos-Tsetl [protective amulet]. Amulet to be hung over a newborn’s bassinet.

Shir Hama’alos-Tsetl [protective amulet]. Amulet to be hung over a newborn’s bassinet.

Hebrew text.

Single page, edges chipped. 4to.

New York: c. 1900

Issued by Eliyahu Kuptchik whose printing shop was located at 371 east 8th Street in the very heart of the teeming Lower East Side of New York. This paper amulet would have been hung over the crib of a new immigrant’s first American-born family member! Customarily hung by traditional Ashkenazi Jews over expectant mothers and sleeping newborn boys before their circumcision. The primary text is Psalm 121, and includes the traditional incantation: “Lilith and all her band - Exit!” It is a representative example of what would have hung over the cradle of thousands of American Jews born to East European immigrants living in New York at the turn of the century.