A Chanukah Grab Bag
Rockland, Mae
A CHANUKAH GRAB BAG The New Jewish Yellow Pages update MAE ROCKLAND No sooner do the leaves change color and fall to the ground than brightly colored flyers and catalogs begin to fill our...
...Toby Rosenberg Home: #12 Deering Street, Apt...
...She can be contacted by mail for special arrangements and colors...
...After all, it is our custom to give presents on Chanukah...
...The individual tiles are also available in New York at the Jewish Museum Gift Shop and at Mo-riah Antique Judaica, and in the Boston area at Kolbo in Brookline...
...The ketubot are printed on 100 percent rag, acid-free paper...
...They have recently announced the publication of a series of inexpensive posters as well as the limited edition lithographs for which he is already known...
...PO Box 194 Elmont, NY 11003 Emanuel Schary is a master lithographer and painter, well known for his ability to capture the tenderest aspects of human nature...
...Textiles Bat-Ami Millo Alperovitch 66 Vi Windward Avenue Venice, CA 90291 Moadim Lesimcha (Holidays for Joy) is the name that Israeli textile designer Bat-Ami Millo Alperovitch has given to her impressive collection of silk-screened challah and matzah covers...
...At other times in our history, and in other places, the holiday was also the impetus for giving gifts...
...I can only cheer them on and wish them well...
...Her work was gorgeous (though without any Jewish content), and we bought several pieces for our home...
...Some of the forms she uses are architectural and other are quite organic, with flowers or fanciful creatures...
...The Magnes Museum will also create medals for individuals or organizations, on commission...
...A color brochure is available...
...In Eastern Europe, for example, teachers (as well as children) often received Chanukah gelt...
...Searching for motifs to express her own profound Jewish commitment, she felt herself very drawn to the immediacy of medieval imagery...
...Her work is simple and exuberant, combining contemporary informality with traditional Hebrew calligraphy...
...I feel particularly fortunate in the work that I do because, along with the catalogs and brochures from commercial enterprises, each day's mail brings me photographs and samples of Jewish creativity from all over the country...
...I recently learned about these two new galleries committed to fine Judaica, one on each coast...
...Irene Helitzer 72 Du Bois Avenue Sea Cliff, NY 11579 Irene has been a skillful production potter for many years and has only turned to making ceremonial Judaica fairly recently...
...She has done an incredible job of translating tiny (less than one inch in diameter) illuminations from a 13th century Chumash into stunning six inch tiles...
...Imagine my delight this past spring when I was doing a papercut workshop for the JCC in Portland and, lo and behold, Toby appears, carrying with her several delightful chanukiot...
...These are objects of special quality that are suitable not only for Chanukah gifts but also for other holiday and life-cycle remembrances...
...The "gift-giving season" is upon us, and here in America, this has become a frenzied buying time for everybody...
...Galleries Gallery Judaica Tina Oberman and Jessica Litz 1330 Westwood Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90024 In the Spirit Brenda Bernstein and Shirley Kagan 460 E. 79th Street New York, NY 10021 Good things seem to come in pairs...
...Sephardim of Salonica, it was traditional to give gifts of clothing and useful household goods to newly-weds in the community, while the children received money and candy...
...She came to America two years ago and says that with all of the places she has lived, the one constant for her has been her Jewishness...
...Toby also makes unique cutout yahrzeit lamps which are particularly beautiful and inspiring...
...And among the Mae Shafter Rockland is the author of several books on American-Jewish arts, crafts and related resources...
...A CHANUKAH GRAB BAG The New Jewish Yellow Pages update MAE ROCKLAND No sooner do the leaves change color and fall to the ground than brightly colored flyers and catalogs begin to fill our mailboxes...
...Her updates to The New Jewish Yellow Rages, her most recent book, appear regularly in these pages...
...Jewish American Hall of Fame Judah Magnes Museum 2911 Russell Street Berkeley, CA 94705 Mel Wacks, the numismatics consultant at the Magnes Museum, recently wrote to tell me of their most recent medal issues, including the new Isaac Stern medal, which has a relief of Carnegie Hall on the reverse side...
...While years apart in age and experience, both share a love of the Hebrew letter, a fine sense of composition and a delight in illumination...
...The lamps are all stoneware and embellished with touches of dark brown and blue or green glazes as well as 24-karat gold...
...And sometimes, it is the manner or circumstance of giving that transforms the object, giving it a Yiddishe neshame (soul) regardless of its origins...
...The master molds of each pattern are carved by hand and then cast into production molds that can be used for no more than 50 pieces before the sharpness of detail wears away...
...JEM Publishers Ltd...
...In both cases they are the work of two women dedicated to elevating the quality of the Judaica that finds its way into our homes...
...Thus, gift-giving on Chanukah is not, as is sometimes implied, merely imitative of Christmas...
...Border tiles are also available and Mirjana is amenable to all sorts of commissions...
...Recently she designed and made the blouses for the Zamir Chorale...
...7 Studio: 148 Middle Street, Box 7 Portland, ME 04101 I first met Toby several years ago at a craft fair in Blue Hill, Maine...
...Sometimes this is easily accomplished by giving something that has a specific ritual function or that draws on Jewish themes...
...Mirjana Mladinov Harris PO Box 434 Newport, RI 02840 Yugoslavian-born Mirjana Mladinov graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome and added Harris to her name when she married Saul Harris while living and working in Israel as a television and stage set designer...
...These are available on a commission basis, along with matching bags...
...There are 46 designs in all, which can be displayed separately or composed into custom groupings...
...She also produces dinnerware and is working on designs for an expanded line of Judaica...
...Sarah Kahn 7 Griggs Place Allston, MA 02134 Sarah Kahn works in a number of different textile techniques but her most recent involvement has been a series of ten designs for handwoven tallitot...
...He has recently released limited-edition ketubah prints blending historical decorative motifs, contemporary graphics and modern calligraphy...
...She can be reached either at home or at her studio...
...One of my favorites is the lamp shown here with five yarmulked teddy bears, each doing something for Chanukah, like holding some latkes or playing a little harp...
...She said she hadn't, but might "someday...
...They are strikingly attractive and moderately priced—a fine addition to any Jewish ceremonial and functional art collection...
...It is gratifying to see examples of the charming things people make for themselves and their families...
...Both customs surely stem from the desire to bring joy to the somber days of winter, with Christians and Jews then relating gift-giving customs to the specific origins of their respective holidays...
...I asked her if she had ever tried her hand at making any ritual pieces...
...JEM Publishers, run by Judy Schary, will help your organization to run exhibits of Emanuel's work...
...Paper Irving Bookstein 119 Griggs Road Brookline, MA 02146 Elaine Brojde Robashkin 2641 Xylon Avenue S. Minneapolis, MN 55426 These two calligraphers, one in Minnesota and one in Massachusetts, have only recently come to my attention...
...Jonathan Kremer Kesset Studio PO Box 692 Brookline, MA 02146 Jonathan Kremer is already well known as a calligrapher...
...I'm pleased to share them with you...
...I hope that I will soon be hearing' from more galleries and craft shops around the country just as I now do from the artists who fill their walls and shelves...
...I'd like to thank the many other people who have shared their artwork with me via letters, calls and photos...
...She is also interested in taking on commissions for the full range of ceremonial Judaica in fabric...
...Joyce Straws 409 Rosemary Lane Las Vegas, NV 89107 A specialist in batik, Joyce Straws will accept mail orders for ceremonial batiked table linens, tallitot, kippot and tallit bags...
...Clay Marion Grebow 451 Eleventh Street Hoboken, NJ 07030 Marion Grebow makes repousse porcelain platters for Passover and the Sabbath...
...She particularly enjoys making one-of-a-kind amulets and mezzuzot...
...But this is hardly a new—or local— tradition...
...Metal Patty Yael Jacobs RFD 3 Box 3322 Farmington, ME 04938 Patty makes jewelry in a variety of materials and designs...
...However, the key to Chanukah gift-giving is to infuse the gift with special Jewish content...
Vol. 8 • December 1982 • No. 1
