Shanah Tovah U'Metukah

Juspan is doing something small to make sure we all have a very sweet New Year...

Be blessed, won't you please?

KinorDavid, a west coast Jeweler created this Shofar... what a beautiful way to bring in the New Year...

Shana Tova to all of my readers and their families... may it be a year of peace, prosperity and creativity!

Real Men Give Tzedakah

What a great Bar Mitzvah gift, or graduation present.... A steel Tzedakah box that just exudes testosterone!

This is from Steven Bronstein of Vermont. He has been creating functional and sculptural ironwork for over 25 years. His designs strive to blend the primitive charm of ironwork with the energy and interest of more contemporary design. Relying on the qualities that make iron such a beautiful material, Steven's pieces are both delicate and rugged. All Blackthorne Forge ironwork is guaranteed for life.

Shana Tova 2008

Neta Levi is an Israeli artist currently living in San Francisco Bay Area, California USA.
In her work, Jewish spirituality meets a contemporary Israeli reality and landscape. Her Personal journey leads us to a more universal truth.
Childhood memories of the Marketplace have greatly inspired Neta's work: the intense blending of people with goods, colors, smells and sounds. This sensual celebration is also typical of the social and historical tapestry of Israel. Neta Levi's technique, of a mixed media collage, weaves together pieces of textile, decorative beads, with holy prayers: the secular reality with the religious spirituality.

Seed Bead Susan.

Once again, I remain without a biography...

Susan, you must share with us your personal story... where you developed such talents... and any embarassing stories you wish to share!!

Are you an artist?

I received a comment from an artist who wondered how to be shown on Judaica Journal... I can only post the things that I know exist. I have few cyber friends who send me postings of things they find intersting. Beyond that, it is ME, searching the web for new and intersting Judaica.
So if you are an artist and you wish to see YOUR work here... email me at judaicajournal AT gmail DOT com and show me your goods!

Off the wall

Wall Dancers are one of a kind Art Dolls that were 'born' in February 2003. Their creator is a midwesterner who began this endeavor as she lay in bed fighting Lyme Disease. This is her newest Wall Dancer and she is named "HER HEBREWNESS." I think this lady would be a great bat mitzvah gift, don't you?

A mezuzah from a surfin' Jew

Curt is a self-taught graphic designer, painter and conceptual artist. Artistic influences come from his weeks of backpacking through remote Indochina, the Art Nouveau movement of the late 19th century and the natural world. When not creating art, you will find Curt on the east coast of his home in central Florida surfing and golfing. Each and every piece is handcrafted with 100% lead-free pewter under the strictest of standards, some pieces fused meticulously with COE 90 dichroic glass work, Austrian Crystals and found objects.

Pssst... pass it on!

(Passed on to me from a friend... I am not thrilled with either candidate, but I definitely have issues with the lady from Alaska).

The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front ofthe Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged, and theidea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women,or men. I had no idea what to expect.The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made mewonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking overcoffee. It's probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed upflyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One ofthose media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-timeuber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not onlyannounced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally "a bunchof socialist baby-killing maggots," and read the home phone numbers of theorganizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what theythought. The women, of course, received some nasty, harassing and threateningmessages.I felt a bit apprehensive. I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at otherrallies. Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event,it's a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people therethat aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A real statement will havebeen made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded byhundreds of menacing "socialist baby-killing maggot" haters.It's a good thing I wasn't tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the libraryor I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutesearly, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds,along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place topark. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of thecar and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carryingsigns.Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off wellover 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggestpolitical rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. Thesecond most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as theydrove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at thehuge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and wasinstantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud hecouldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3,like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.So, if you've been doing the math… Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally wassignificantly bigger than Palin's rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread thepictures around to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely doesnot speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have thingsto say.

Adam's first wife...

In Bereshit, the birth of the first man and woman are written in two different ways. In the first creation story, man and woman are created at the same moment and from the same material. This woman is not named. In the other story, Eve is created from Adam's side, and she is the woman from whom humankind is issued.

These two stories present a perplexing textual issue—the first woman seems to have disappeared, while Eve remains. What happened to the first woman? The Alphabet of Ben Sira, an ancient midrash offers this explanation:

After the Holy One created the first human being, Adam, God said, "It is not good for Adam to be alone." God created a woman, also from the earth, and called her Lilith.

They quarreled immediately. She said: "I will not lie below you." He said, "I will not lie below you, but above you. For you are fit to be below me and I above you."

She responded: "We are both equal because we both come from the earth."

Neither listened to the other. When Lilith realized what was happening, she pronounced the Ineffable (secret) Name of God and flew off into the air, out of the Garden.

Adam rose in prayer before the Creator, saying, " The woman you gave me has fled from me." Immediately the Holy One sent three angels after her.

The Holy One said to Adam, "If she wants to return, all the better. If not, she will have to accept that one hundred of her children will die every day."

The angels went after her, finally locating her in the Red Sea, in the powerful waters were destined to perish the Israelites. They told her what God had said, and she did not want to return. . ."

Lilith is a voice in the wilderness: a woman who stood up for herself. In the magazine named after her, Lilith, Lilith is described as a powerful female, with a strong character and commmitment to her principles.

I see Lilith as a role model. Her voice called out to me. It was immensely powerful to find a Jewish tradition about a strong woman who stood up for what she believed. When I discovered Lilith, I found a voice in Jewish tradition—a womans' voice, a strong voice. Lilith said to me, yes—you are in the text, when the written Torah text said no—the rabbis said no — Lilith said yes.

Understanding that Lilith's essence is her strength as an independent woman, I embrace her as a symbol—a symbol of a mythical character not afraid to stand up for what she believed in. Through Lilith, I was able to replace the silence that was so empty, with an image of strength and independence,

My journey is far from complete—I still search for women in tradition to help me voice my most intimate connections with God and with tradition. But now I know that I am standing—standing tall in Jewish tradition---as I continue my journey of finding my voice in the text.

Through the discovery of Lilith, I have begun to listen more carefully to the voices in the Torah. I am finding my voice, and womens voices, carefully etched between the lines.

By embracing the legends, the unheard voices, and making them our own, we are continually creating Torah—for our voices are added to the thousands of generations before, weaving a tapestry of Torah that is far greater, far deeper, than the written page--- from Rabbi Allison Bergman of Temple Beth El in San Antonio, TX


This one of a kind art bust is from the husband wife team of C+M figures... I was amazed at how little non-pornographic art of Lilith I could find... Thank goodness for this couple!

Almost Artifacts.

I found a new Polymer Clay Artist!!!! I love how old they feel despite being made with a modern material. Serious bravo!!!

Quilling...

Are you familiar with quilling? Quilling or paper filigree is the art
of creating designs with narrow strips of paper that have been rolled, shaped and
arranged to form designs. During the Renaissance, French and Italian nuns and monks used quilling to decorate book covers and religious items. The paper most commonly used was strips of paper trimmed from the gilded edges of books. These gilded paper strips were then rolled to create the quilled shapes. Quilling often imitated the original ironwork of the day.
In the 18th century, quilling became popular in Europe where gentle ladies of quality {"ladies of leisure"} practiced the art. It was one of the few things ladies could do that was thought not too taxing for their minds or gentle dispositions. Quilling also spread to the Americas and there are a few examples from Colonial times.

Inna's Creations take this old techinique to new heights.

The sound of one hand...

From Ruth Tarragano, an organic appearing polymer clay hamsa with the Shema.

She almost got one by me

Naama Zamir is changing her style... subtly, but the diffence is there... can you see it too? And in honor of her quiet metamorphosis, a new haiku from me!

Five fingers, one soul

A hamsa hangs near my heart

To bring You closer

And the floods return.

The URJ Greene Family Camp is once again a significant part of the Texas evacuation effort. Beginning last week, Loui met with emergency management officials and managers at the American Red Cross. Hundreds of families from the Texas Gulf Coast have been arriving in Bruceville Texas since Wednesday, sent here by the American Red Cross. Hundreds more are expected. Currently, the population is 400 and is expected to grow, reaching 700 individuals tonight. In addition to families fleeing the coast, GFC is housing many of the teams of Red Cross volunteers who are serving other shelters in Central Texas.
The Greene Family Camp staff is doing a remarkable job keeping up with the myriad needs of the Red Cross shelter managers and their clientele. Stefani Rozen and Ted Cera, in particular, have been working directly with the Red Cross to make this happen. Our entire Kitchen, Maintenance, and Housekeeping crews have been involved throughout, allowing us to provide this service to the community. Beginning today, Friday, members of our summer camp and counselor staff will begin to arrive and organize programming for the children who are here.
In addition to utilizing all of our camper and staff housing facilities, we have moved hundreds of cots into our two recreation halls (the Moadon and the Beyt Ha’am). Our other program spaces are being used for activities and as lounges.
Three seasons ago, Greene Family Camp played a major role in the Hurricane Rita evacuation and relief effort, operating “Camp Rita” serving hundreds of residents of the Texas coast. Some of them are back with us for “Camp Ike”.
Greene’s sister camp in the URJ Southwest Council, The Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica Mississippi has been an integral part of the relief efforts surrounding hurricanes Katrina and Gustov.

The link above will lead you to means of donating to the rebuilding the effort.

The son of a sculptor, Gregory Kohelet was initiated into art by his father. He wasn't pressured to learn "the classical laws of Art", but only to love and respect Nature - the master teacher. As a young boy, Gregory traveled with his father to wild landscapes with the intention of learning to understand the meaning of composition, color and expression as they exist in the Nature. In 1990, he immigrated with his family to Israel ansd settled in Jerusalem. In the Holy City he absorbed much light and divine inspiration. He believes in God but only in Jerusalem did he really "meet" Him.

Kathi- Mistress of all Media

My dear friend Kathi, did it again, this time completing two windows to hang in the home of one of her patrons. This mem and shin are joining a window with a large alef. You should go straight to her blog and read about them.

ZACHOR- Remember...

Never again....

Another Alef

Another relatively obscure artist for me to await input from!

POP, POP, it is Popcorn time

My son, the Cub scout, is selling popcorn with his Den. I have to admit that the kettle corn that they sell is absolutely delicious (and tastier than the wrapping paper the school sells).

So if you want to try a not very decadent treat and help out a very wonderful organization why not just go here and order some. For the scout number just put in TE3HM7 and my boy will get credit for the sale (albeit DrMom, the den mom deserves it).

Looking for some extra money... just move to Dothan

Jewish families offered about $50,000 to relocate to Alabama
September 9, 2008

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DOTHAN, Ala. -- An organization in an Alabama town is offering Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate its Bible Belt community.
Larry Blumberg is chairman of an organization wanting Jewish families to move to Dothan, an overwhelmingly Christian town of 58,000 that calls itself the Peanut Capital of the World. Get involved at Temple Emanu-El and stay at least five years, the group's leaders say, and the money doesn't have to be repaid.

Larry Blumberg is chairman of the Blumberg Family Relocation Fund, which is offering Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate to Dothan, an overwhelmingly Christian town of 58,000. (AP)
More Jews are living in the South than ever -- about 386,000 at last count in 2001, according to Stuart Rockoff, a historian at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Miss. But young Jews are leaving small places like Dothan in favor of cities like Atlanta and Birmingham, Rockoff said, and dozens of small-town synagogues have closed.
"A lot of the older people have died, and not many of the younger ones have stayed," said Thelma Nomberg, a member of the Dothan temple who grew up in nearby Ozark, where she was the only Jewish student in public school in the 1940s. "We are dying." Being outside the Christian majority was never a problem, Nomberg said, even six decades ago: She won the Miss Ozark beauty pageant at 14 and sometimes attended church with friends after sleep-overs.
Now a widow, Nomberg has watched two of her four adult children leave for Florida as Temple Emanu-El lost nearly half its membership, down to about 50 families. She can only hope the recruitment plan hatched by Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services of Dothan works for her synagogue.
Launched in June, the Blumberg program has put advertisements in Jewish newspapers in Boston, Miami, Providence, R.I., and Washington, and it plans to expand the campaign.
"I think it's important that we try to find young people that we could use in our religious school, our Sunday school and help in the way of trying to create more of a family-type atmosphere in our temple," Blumberg said.
Groups offered financial aid for Jews to return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Jewish organizations around the country offer moving assistance for relocating families. A congregation has loans and other benefits for Jewish families moving into an area near Boston.
There isn't any evidence the Alabama campaign is headed to Chicago, even though the metro area counts 270,000 Jewish residents, putting the city and suburbs in the top five Jewish communities, according to Jewish Federation of Metro Chicago statistics. Still, one one local rabbi applauds the effort.
"I think it's intriguing. The south has a rich Jewish history and I think this organization, this foundation is doing what it can to keep Jews, particularly young people, in a small town -- to keep them from leaving for what perhaps more opportunity in the larger cities," said Rabbi Aaron Melman, Congregation Beth Shalom in suburban Northbrook.
Trying to lure Jewish families to a quiet Southern town in a state with a reputation for hard-right politics and racial intolerance might be difficult. About 20 Jewish families have sought information about Dothan, though none has made the move.
Rockoff credits Blumberg and the rest of the congregation with fighting to remain in Dothan, where the synagogue has a full-time rabbi and the temple, which is aligned with the reform movement, hasn't missed having a Friday night service in decades.
"It is a small community, but they have some deep pockets to be able to do this," said Rockoff. "As a historian it is fascinating to see them trying to buck this trend." Dothan lies at the heart of the South's peanut region, in Alabama's southeastern corner just minutes from Florida and Georgia. It's dotted with big fiberglass peanuts painted to resemble characters and people -- there's even an Elvis peanut.
Little things are big here: The city boasts what it calls the world's smallest city block, a triangular traffic island near the civic center.
But Blumberg's group is selling prospective Jewish residents on Dothan's quality of life -- its low cost of living, the heritage of its synagogue and its proximity to Florida beaches, about 80 miles away.
The city is the site of the down-home National Peanut Festival each fall, and it has a full schedule of community cultural events. It has two hospitals, a branch of Troy University and is just a short drive from Fort Rucker, the Army's main helicopter training base.
Downtown is filled with quaint red-brick buildings and colorful murals, and traffic never gets too bad on Ross Clark Circle, the perimeter road.
"We have Friday afternoon rush minute, and that's about it," said manufacturing executive Ed Marblestone, 69, who grew up Jewish in Texas but married a Dothan girl and has lived in the town since 1961.
Valerie Barnes grew up in Panama and moved several times before settling 20 years ago in Dothan and becoming active at the synagogue. She's never experienced any anti-Semitism and can't imagine living anywhere else.
"The biggest thing Dothan has to offer is that it's just a very family-oriented community," said Barnes, who directs a hospital foundation.
"Our congregation is very vibrant, and we have a lot of things that we get involved in." Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith didn't know quite what to expect when she moved to Dothan a year ago to lead the congregation at Temple Emanu-El, which was founded in 1929. She came with her husband, who directs the Jewish community services group.
A Connecticut native, the rabbi halfway expected the Alabama of old with wide-open racism and dirt roads.
"The Northeast has a really warped perception of what the South is all about, and I found out it was all wrong," she said. "The South is a wonderful place to be. The people are warm and friendly. There's very little traffic. And best of all, there's no snow."

Oh my, my

Sometimes I see something and it takes my breath away. Such as it was when I found this phenomenal menorah mosaic from the Arkansas artist Ginger Terry. I wish I could tell you more about this artist, but I am unable to find much on the net. Please go to her flickr site and be amazed!

Read anything beautiful lately?

Once again my artist is essentially a mystery to me. He is male University Professor living in Cambridge, MA... and he is mightly talented. Check his work out.

P.S. SEFER means BOOK in Hebrew

Say AAAAA-lef

The meandering path of IlonMosaics meandering path to mosaics began in childhood. As a young girl she would study the bathroom floors at her home to identify new shapes and figures within the existing 1950s-era tile arrangement. Fast forward through careers in journalism, economic analysis, business consulting and jewelry design, through travels to dozens of countries that opened my eyes to a world of patterns, textures and colors, and here she is again, completely fascinated and absorbed by tiles and other tesserae. This time, however, she get to decide how to arrange them.

Pull out your handkerchief

In one of my flickr searches I discovered this phenomenal chuppah, not knowing that there was an even more wonderful history behind it:

From the bride, I learned: It was made using dozens of old handkerchiefs that belonged to my husband's mother and grandmother. A friend sewed them together for us to use for our chuppah. It was beautiful - the sunlight streamed through it and it was just light and breezy. Not to mention that it held such personal meaning.

Double A...I mean Alef

The art of Danny Shorkend is an expression of a vision of spiritual and material energy, the attempts to communicate the ineffable via the energetic flow of the holy hebrew letters and thus inspire a dialogue with the viewer - in turn creating consciousness so to speak. In this way a bridge is formed between the matter of paint and the etherial realm of intellect and spirit. The visual is not only Judaic but desires to inspire on a more univeral scale.

Couture Canopies

Jody Soloshatz of Couture Canopies is a fine artist and former fashion designer who designed womenswear over the past ten years for a variety of companies including Victoria's Secret, Gap Body, and Banana Republic. After hand painting a uniquely designed chuppah for her own wedding, she was inspired to combine her fashion sensibility with her background in fine arts to create Couture Canopies.
An award winning textile artist, her high taste level, refined sense of style, and painterly aesthetic combine to create exquisitely beautiful chuppahs. You can see the equisite detail of her work in the examples below.
Jody holds a degree in Textile and Apparel Design from Cornell University (GO BIG RED) and has studied fashion design and fine art at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and at the Polimoda in Florence, Italy.

Small Torahs, Big Ideas...

Carole Smollan was born and brought up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She cannot remember a time when textiles were not part of her life; her relationship with the touch, smell and colour of cloth began when she was a small child on the floor of her tailor grandfather's cutting room. In her twenties she was the head designer for a leading South African lingerie company before taking up ceramics. For many years she had her own studio in Johannesburg, where she produced large abstract and narrative clay murals. Arriving in London without a kiln, she returned to that primal relationship with cloth and began to make and decorate chuppot, which will themselves be preserved as family heirlooms and passed on through the generations.A small, very moving series within the collection of miniature Torah mantles tells the story of Smollan's own family exodus from Lithuania to South Africa; these objects are artificially aged and stained and incorporate fragments of family travel documents and wedding ketuba (the Jewish marriage agreement), heat transfer-printed photographs and other family memorabilia. The series also bears silent witness to those family members who did not make the exodus and later perished in the Holocaust.Other imagery on the Torah mantles is more traditional – the Tree of Life, the menorah (seven-branched lamp), the Ark of the Covenant and, in Hebrew script, prayers and words spoken at life-cycle ceremonies.They communicate a sense of Jewish identity and Jewish experience in the diaspora, evoking ideas of connectedness – another linking of the metaphorical threads. Yet Smollan's imagery is vital and fresh, a reinterpretation of the ritual iconography.Carole Smollan's miniature Torah mantles are also part of a wider movement in the world of contemporary art textiles, for miniature textiles is a growing genre. In addition to their practicality (they do not require serious resources and are relatively easy to transport and exhibit), they represent a fundamental way of interacting with the world; their scale intrigues and invites closer investigation. Just as we discover unexpected qualities on examining something small and found in nature like a beautiful polished stone or a rare butterfly hovering on a leaf, miniature textiles are perfect vehicles for the exploration of exquisite materials and fine hand work.Ritual textiles are an art of the everyday and the fabrics used to create them an analogue for the degenerative and regenerative processes of life.Carole Smollan's miniature Torah mantles are ritual textiles for the 21st century. They symbolise connectedness and bind the artist to her forebears and to all within the faith.