Jerusalem public figure David Yehuda Cohen Shako - brass cigarette box with calligraphic decorations in the Damascus technique.
The box is engraved "David Y. Cohen Shako"
Size: 7.5 x 9 cm. (2.9 x 3.5 inches)
Weight: 141 gr.
Average condition, one of the hinges is missing.
David Yehuda Cohen Shako, was the son-in-law of Meir Jani, a forty-year-old Jewish merchant, who decided in 1880 to leave his home in the city of Ioannina, Greece, and immigrate to the Land of Israel with his wife and three daughters. Meir Jani's court in the Christian quarter of the Old City was famous among the Jews, thanks The synagogue he had on the third floor of his house where Jewish merchants in the area would gather for prayer on weekdays, Meir Jani lived in this house with his family and his son-in-law David Shaki who married his daughter Esther and they lived on the ground floor of the building in Jani's yard.
The public activities of David Yehuda Cohen Shako
David Yehuda Cohen Shako 1906 was elected to the general committee of the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim in Jerusalem, in 1910 it was written about his contribution to the associations "Pioneers of the Army" and the association "For the Help of Women of the Army", when he was elected to the "Committee of the Kadisha Cemetery" David Shako was appointed as an agent next to Rabbi Yitzhak Desa and Rabbi Avraham Azriel , in 1920 David Shako was a member of the Sephardic Assembly of Representatives, in 1921 David Shako was elected as a member of the Mashgav Ladakh Hospital Board, at the same time David Shako donated 100,000 to the hospital, in 1932 he was among the benefactors of the Sephardi community when he participated in the distribution of gifts (books, toys) for Sephardic orphans at the "Zion" orphanage, in 1933 David Shako was elected to the committee of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem as one of the seventeen representatives, the committee was chosen to serve for two years in his position, in 1938 David Shako's name was submitted as a Sephardic candidate for the Jerusalem City Council.