Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Coining Haute Judaica

At the intersection of Judaica and high fashion is a new jewelry line that features pendants made out of Israeli coins. The collection is called Kessef, which is the Hebrew word for money and a play on the last name of its 27-year-old founder and designer, Eve Lynn Kessner.

Two years ago Kessner enrolled in a metal-smithing class at New York’s 92nd Street Y, and began creating the prototypes for what would eventually become Kessef. She officially launched the brand earlier this summer with about two-dozen styles, ranging in price from $900 to $2,500.

The collection includes diamond-, ruby- and sapphire-encrusted Magen David and chamsa pendants, fashioned out of contemporary Israeli shekels and agorot, and vintage Israeli lira — the currency of the Jewish state between 1948 and 1980.

“Jewish and Israeli culture are a big part of my life, and are manifested in my jewelry,” said Kessner, a Jewish day school graduate and a Hebrew speaker. “The symbolism and the coin itself lend meaning to its wearer. If the symbol is a chamsa” — an amulet worn throughout the Middle East to ward off the Evil Eye — “it automatically has more significance if it is cut out of an Israeli coin, because the chamsa is so prevalent in Israeli culture.”

About half of Kessef’s collection could qualify as Judaica. Also on offer are peace sign-, heart- and Buddha-shaped pendants, made out of American and Chinese coins. All the pieces are handmade by New York artisans, Kessner said.

Currently, Kessef can be purchased exclusively at kessefbyevelynn.com. However, the designs will also be available at a series of fall trunk shows in New York, and Kessner said she is in talks to sell pieces from her collection to retailers in New York, Los Angeles and East Hampton, N.Y.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.