Our History

Quality prayer shawls since 1898

Talitnia is a family owned business, established and managed by the Avner family, producing prayer shawls for five generations. The story of the plant starts in the late 19th century in Poland, moves to Israel at the beginning of the 20th century, and follows the important events of the Jewish people and the Zionist movement in this period: the town in Poland, the immigration to Israel, the Holocaust, the Israeli War of Independence and the rebirth of the Jewish nation in our country.

Weaving, an ancient art reinvented

The art of weaving was probably invented in Ancient Egypt, and our ancestors were familiar with it too as can be deduced from its mentioning in the bible. For many generations the basic weaving techniques and the ancient structure of the loom remained unchanged, and the weaving was done at home or in small workshops. In this manner, the Prayer shawls were woven in the different Jewish communities in the diaspora. Different communities developed their own styles, mostly expressed and reflected in the width stripes incorporated into the weft yarns.
All this has changed at the end of the 18th century with the invention of the mechanical loom. This invention has transformed the production of textile and has announced the industrial revolution. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard has presented another revolution, a mechanical loom with the capacity for automatic complex pattern weaving using punch cards; an invention that one day in the future will contribute to the invention of the first computers.
Weaving was not a traditional Jewish occupation in Eastern Europe, except for weaving prayer shawls, which demands the involvement of a Jewish artisan to ensure a kosher Jewish prayer shawl. However, Jews specialized in wool and textile trade as well as in banking, enabling them to finance the purchase of new looms and set up textile mills. This soon developed into a thriving textile industry in Poland, mostly in Jewish hands, centered mainly around Lodz and Bialystok.

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Tikutin (also known as Tikochin) is a small old town in the Bialystok County. The town was inhabited since the middle of the 14th century by a large Jewish community, known for its Great glorious Synagogue. A know weaving artist named Jacob Levi has established in the town a small Prayer shawls weaving factory Tiktinner Tallitim. Jacob Levi passed on at a young age, and the factory has moved to his daughter and her husband, Rabbi Avigdor Shulman.





One of the factory’s employees was Isaac Tzvi Sviyetchkovski together with his oldest son Jacob Koppel who joined him in 1891. Rabbi Shulman has also passed on at a young age and Jacob Koppel, already married to Fruma, the daughter of Rabbi Israel Smorla from Babin, has decided to buy the factory. Jacob Koppel has stayed behind his family, who immigrated to America including his father, his wife and his young children. The factory managed by Jacob Koppel, known as “Koppel der tallitnick” has thrived and made a name for itself throughout the Jewish world. The Tikochin Prayer shawls were known for their beauty and quality and were exported to Europe, America and some even reached Jewish communities in Northern Africa and Yemen.




A prayer shawl made by Rabbi Yacov Kopel Sviyetchkovski At Tikochin synagogue



1898: “Tiktinner Tallitim”
1924: David Avner immigrates to Israel
1927: the establishment of Talitnia
1930: "Kol Israel" - Advertisment
1933: A technological leap
1941: Holocaust and Destruction
1951: A new factory in Givat Hertzel
1988: moving to computerized weaving
2000: the largest tallit in the world
2003: the grand opening of the world’s largest prayer shawl factory