A Silver and Niello Presentation Esther Scroll Case, Caucasian, 1902

The inscriptions, translated from Cyrillic, read "Jacov Itzakovich, Derbend" on the pull ; on the barrel “souvenir from the Caucasus 1902." Derbend(t) is an ancient city in Daghestan on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. The Jewish Encylopedia gives the Jewish population in 1891 as 2,490 in a total population of 15,265. In 1888 it recorded 4 synagogues, 6 rabbis and 8 schools with 95 pupils.

Rabbi Yaakov Itzhaki (1846-1917) was born in Derbend, Daghestan in 1846, where he served as the Chief Rabbi beginning in 1868. In 1907, he settled in Eretz, Israel and soon thereafter established an agricultural settlement now known as the town of Be'er Ya'aqov.