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.”
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