Bringing Home Jerusalem's Treasures

Gingold, Barbara

BRINGING HOME JERUSALEM'S TREASURES An introduction to the city's outstanding artisans for the traveler who is searching for more than just a souvenir Ten portions of beauty were allotted to the...

...Patchwork challah covers by some American kibbutzniks, freshly down on the farm...
...Malla is "into landscapes" and experimenting with new drawing techniques and media these days...
...The mandala-like, 13-petalled rose at its center, like the geometric patterns surrounding it, refers to kabbalistic interpretations of the Song of Songs...
...Each part of my works has a sculptural quality and value and takes on its own life...
...Imported oak, beech, walnut and mahogany, along with jacaranda and ebony, atimoya and padauk, are elegantly accented with silver and gold (for sparkling bells, pennants and fittings), and mother-of-pearl, brass and ivory (for inlays and lettering...
...Most tourists don't have far to go, of course, for every street on Jerusalem's tourist itineraries—from the new pedestrian mall on Ben Yehuda Street in the heart of the city, to the shtetl-style market of Mean Shearim, to the oriental shuk of the Old City—is crammed with shops selling "artistic souvenirs...
...The kind of work that I do won't come from there, or from a penthouse in Tel Aviv either...
...About six years ago, Annette made her first m'zzuzot—bright jewel-like clusters of French knots on a black velvet background, with a dainty glass tube stitched on to hold the parchment—and these are her most popular products still...
...she seems to be going in a whole new bolder and freer direction in her latest oil crayon pictures...
...For, like many'of the city's secrets, Jerusalem's finest craftspeople are hidden among her stones...
...And the other tenth...
...If your Hebrew—or Persian— is not exactly fluent, Nairn suggests you contact him via this author, who is always happy to have an excuse to visit him and his family...
...and living in Israel for the past 20 years, Annette was a graphic artist and silk-screen printer until a friend told her she had to find a more serious medium...
...Though I'm no longer religiously observant...
...I don't try to express something spiritually," Annette declares, refusing even to name her works...
...Turning to Judaica, he discovered a long tradition of wood-carved ceremonial art in Europe and the Middle East...
...It's necessary to search them out, to visit their homes, to hear their stories, in order to see and appreciate their works...
...Israel's Society for Jewish Art recently awarded a prestigious prize to one of her "Jerusalem" papercuts...
...Yehudit made her first papercut in a traditional Eastern European pattern for David Ben-Gurion's 80th birthday party at Sde Boker in 1966...
...Meira has also been commissioned by the Israel Museum Shop to produce replicas of Delft Pesach plates and an 18th-century German Hanukkah lamp with a gorgeous green glaze...
...UnforBarbara Gingold, a free-lance photojournalist living in Jerusalem, is an amateur Judaica collector...
...They are usually happy to receive guests during their working hours...
...417-315 A Persian-born sofer and archaeological restorer, Nairn learned his art and craft from his father, who—as the stories go—learned from his father, who learned from his father...
...She will be happy to provide additional information on the topic to visitors in Jerusalem...
...632-723...
...Today, Meira"s hanukkiot—at least five new styles every year—combine something old and something new, fanciful colors and graphic designs and architectural elements from the history of Jewish art and the neighborhoods she visits daily...
...The three artists below come to Judaica from aesthetic traditions as varied as their countries of birth, but each, in his/her own way, is masterfully carrying on the work done by Jewish scribes of past centuries...
...120 prints with the Reform text in English...
...Meira Una Rehov Negba 4 Old Katamon, Jerusalem Tel...
...I can't explain it...
...But it was only after three years of study in Bezalel's ceramics department and several more years of working and travelling abroad that she returned to her studio in Jerusalem and made her first piece of Judaica— a ceramic Hanukkah lamp in early French Gothic style...
...Catriel Sugarman Rehov Yohanan MiGush Halav 17 Jerusalem Tel...
...Catriel's love of his medium is exceeded only by his respect for tradition, and both are beautifully expressed in each of his hand-carved works...
...Ruth Wieder c/o Gabriella Lev Rehov Negba 7 Old Katamon, Jerusalem Tel...
...The landscape, the people, the buildings here—inspiration is in the air and you don't have to go looking for it...
...Her attempts to create something "totally new"—yet with a thread of the old spirit—are crucially linked to Jerusalem...
...some have had it passed on to them through generations...
...Craftspeople The following is a very partial listing of Jerusalemites creating Judaica today...
...In 1973 she discovered the running stitch, the satin stitch and the French knot, and she's been in love with them ever since...
...664-871 "Jewish art has to do with a certain consciousness...
...and little painted boxes, perfect for Havdalah spices, by an Armenian Jerusalemite, have filled their arms if not their dreams during various August evenings at Khutzot HaYotzer, and it is certain that they will join the throngs there again this year...
...Malla Carl Rehov Metudela 24 Rehavia, Jerusalem Tel...
...Though she accepts commissions for ketuhoi (hand-written text on parchment mounted in an embroidered black velvet frame), parochot and other items, Annette states (irmly that she works best when she's "totally free"—and a visit to her studio proves how good her best can be...
...They struggle with the definition of Jewish art much as their government struggles with the definition of a Jew—less in hope of solving the question than of being stimulated by it...
...the graceful lines inlaid in a m'zzuzah look very much like the windows upstairs...
...Arts and crafts exhibitions, some of them devoted to Judaica, are held periodically in the capital, sponsored by hotels, private organizations or the municipality...
...In her studio, Meira has a large selection of her original m'zzuzot and hanukkiot, which she sometimes fires three limes to achieve special color Paint and ink Mizrach, Nairn and textural effects...
...In the meantime, Ruth has also produced an exquisite ketubah at the Jerusalem Print Workshop, in a signed and limited edition (180 prints with Hebrew text...
...Having chosen 10th-century square Sephardi script as her favorite, Malla now designs texts—using both English and Hebrew—from Pirke Avot, the Mishnah and other Jewish sources, working on them "till the letters are polished like a gem, till the words dance...
...Her illustrations, anything from a portrait of an elderly Jew to a delicate rosebud to a Jerusalem landscape, are sensitive, skilled and most reminiscent of the Old Masters...
...Silkscreened in 12 colors with shades of blue and purple predominating, the ketubah is based on a traditional Persian design but takes off on a 20th-century'tangent...
...They are not necessarily the biggest producers or the best-known artists in their fields...
...yet all are bound by their deep awareness of the privilege and pleasure of working in Jerusalem...
...There are no neon signs pointing the way to their studios, no glossy catalogues advertising their wares...
...for someone else, it is Solomon's Temple...
...Whatever style the art you wish to purchase, you'll be treated to real Persian hospitality at Nairn's modest apartment (usually complete with homebaked rose water cookies, strong mint tea and an introduction to at least a few of the children and grandchildren...
...Tourists who are more interested in the "artistic" and less in the "souvenir" can often find something they like at the Israel Museum Shop or at a few stores in the center of town (Idit, Charlotte's, and HaNoded Gallery are among the better ones) that are known for their tasteful range of gifts...
...he has a B.A...
...Madison Avenue and Bloomingdale's...
...One picture may he a window or a door exercise, a place to be...
...carved ivory statuettes by an elderly new immigrant from Russia...
...Run by reputable dealers not given to haggling over prices, these places make a point of originality and quality, and most of their merchandise has a clearly "Jewish" or "Israeli" flavor...
...The "big daddy" of them all is the Arts Fair of Khutzot HaYotzer, the crafts center just below the walls of the Old City, facing David's Tower...
...Replicas of the past are senile: If we don't create something new, we are not doing something that is part of modern civilization and Judaism today...
...Many of his pieces are reminiscent of similar objects produced in past centuries in silver and other materials, but Catriel's finely grained and subtly blended woods give the works a totally new character...
...711-068 Annette Fein paints in embroidery, employing stitches and thread to do things she can't do with oil on canvas...
...And the egalitarian gragger (noisemaker) for Purim—inscribed "Blessed be Mordechai and Esther" on one side, "Cursed by Haman and Zeresh" on the other—no doubt was influenced by the egalitarian minyan in Jerusalem (which Catriel does not attend...
...As for Judaica, well, local optimists return to the fair year after year with faith and hope that, before the Messiah comes, they will make some great artistic find there...
...In 1980 he graduated with distinction and was awarded the Shapiro Prize for his "Hanukkah Lamp # 1"—a starkly geometric, sleek silver menorah whose five components can be rearranged into an almost unlimited number of configurations...
...They have been published and exhibited in Jewish galleries from coast to coast, and acquired by museums from Jerusalem to San Francisco...
...A visit to her studio, in a stately old Arab house on one of Jerusalem's loveliest streets, is a must for any collector of contemporary Judaica...
...Address: Rehov Dor v'Dorshav 8, German Colony, Jerusalem...
...they are all, however, talented individuals who are dedicated to their art...
...maybe my art comes from a previous gitgul | incarnation...
...Since I've been involved in Judaica, I have been learning more about it, I am involved in it every day, and I see myself continuing Jewish tradition...
...I start with elements of design, of geometry, of the original shapes and styles of the menorah or other pieces of cermonial art...
...I came to the subject of hanukkiot without any religious background," he says candidly, "and I have a free attitude to Judaica...
...I always wanted to create things with wood—things that are bubbling with Yiddishkeit," Catriel says...
...Most of them work alone and are not acquainted with each other...
...Many of Jerusalem's Judaica artists call themselves secular Israelis, and many of them were born elsewhere...
...and some deny it altogether...
...663-217 The papercuts of Yehudit Shadur hardly need an introduction to American audiences...
...For me, it becomes a window I would like to look out on Jerusalem from...
...Working in traditional, symmetrical style, using classic Jewish symbols such as biblical flora and fauna (vine leaves and pomegranates, lions and deer are among her favorites), she combines several layers of painted paper with gold and other metallic tints for highlights...
...since then, she has developed this old folk art into a fine art and inspired a whole new generation of Jewish papercutters...
...Each piece has a form as well as a function that I use for hiddur mitzvah |the enhancement of the mitzvah].' One of the few young Israeli artists producing strictly modern and innovative ceremonial art, Yakov takes a strong stand on what he sees as the struggle between modern and traditional Judaica...
...More adventurous souls in search of "Jewish art" may make their way to the House of Quality, near the antique-but-still-used railway station...
...Yakov's "Hanukkah Lamp #1," handmade and signed like all his works, was produced in sterling silver in a limited edition of 55, and in brass in an edition of 300...
...634-639 The daughter of a very religious family in Herzliya, Meira Una decided she would be an artist when she took her first course in sculpture—at the age of 10...
...Nairn can make faithful copies of famous ketubot for couples who would like to pretend their wedding certificate came from 18th-century Italy, 19th-century Prance or early 20th-century India...
...Meira says, "it's still inside me...
...Despite all this, despite calloused feet and bleary eyeballs, the true lover of crafts and Judaica come from abroad to walk in the streets of Jerusalem may be left with a sense of disappointment...
...Geometric designs and simple menorot painted on parchment and lined with Nairn's bold script come alive, with an almost naive look, with floral patterns, birds and animals...
...Basically, the Jewish religion is something old, not from the moon but from Sinai, so you have to create things either in the old spirit—or totally new...
...At the same time, she is working on a series of animals and birds, and accepts commissions for ketubot, blessings, "the view from your Jerusalem window" and almost any other suggestions that may kindle her apparently infinite enthusiasm for combining words and pictures...
...Nairn Rehov Stern 41/32 Kiryat Yovel Jerusalem Tel...
...I'm interested in getting to Jewish sources, but not necessarily using them directly in my art...
...245-269 On a little old lane at the bottom of Jaffa Road, almost facing the Old City, Catriel Sugarman works in wood, a most un-Israeli medium...
...He opened a shop in Jerusalem for custom-made furniture, and taught woodworking to disadvantaged youngsters in Beit Shemesh for several years...
...In New York, what do you see...
...Her quest for authentic Jewish sources has lately led her away from visual arts and into the realm of theater: this past year, the original production called "Beruria," in which she and her sister co-starred, won two major drama awards and has been playing to SRO audiences throughout the country...
...Hanukkah Lamp #1" was followed by designs for other hanukkiot, m'zzuzot, rimmonim, a Havdalah set and his latest work: a stunning mini- -sculpture for Mayim Achronim (the final handwashing after the Grace After Meals), consisting of a svelte silver pitcher perfectly fitted into a rounded container to catch the water...
...He accepts orders for custom-made Judaica for home or synagogue...
...Cameras in one hand and travelers' cheques in the other, they march off on their quests for the perfect gift, the memento as everlasting as the Holy City itself—and preferably one that will not get crushed, crumpled or cracked in the suitcase on the way back...
...720-702 As a student at Jerusalem's Bezalel Art Academy, Yakov Greenvurcel had been enrolled in the Jewelry Department for three years before he discovered that he hated making jewelry and Embroidery, Annette Fein turned to Judaica instead...
...Yehudit has produced several limited editions of silk-screen prints based on her papercut designs and has had her work translated into tapestry...
...Her works are highly ornate and delicately detailed, yet her impeccable sense of design and color result in papercuts with a strongly contemporary feeling...
...Though the fair does not generally offer great bargains, the large number of participating craftspeople almost always includes quite a few talented ceramicists and jewelers who sell their handmade wares at popular prices...
...Born and educated in the U.S...
...tunately, the silent dimness of this gallery may make visitors despair of finding anything exciting there, but in fact, there are a few Very fine craftspeople alive and working in the studios above the ground-floor showroom (see below...
...Yakov was born in Poland in 1952 and brought to Israel at the age of four...
...Held for two weeks every August, the fair attracts thousands of sightseers from Israel and abroad, and many of them come away from it delightedly clutching plastic bags filled with the evening's purchases...
...Ruth will be happy to elaborate upon these, as well as her own deep feelings and multi-media experiments on the Jewish art scene, with anyone who gets in touch with her...
...All my works are exercises...
...Yehudit's starting point is often a quote from the Bible—particularly the Prophets or Psalms—and images of Jerusalem figure prominently...
...Graphic Artists There is no shortage of scribes in the Holy City, but those whose illustrations are worthy of their fine script are a relatively rare breed...
...The outlines of a spice box may reflect the parapets of the Old City around the corner from Catriel's studio...
...It's been spread out through the world, obviously—by tourists who've been to Jerusalem...
...For a religious woman from Hungary, it is a synagogue in the town where she was born...
...The small details—a medallion here, a border there—painted in a sparkling royal blue, with a bright gold square or circle surrounding a field of delicate, almost-invisible flowers, could almost have jumped off the pages of an antique Persian manuscript...
...Each year they descend, in the hundreds of thousands, upon Israel's capital, determined to take home with them a bit of the city's charm...
...631-380 Born into a family of Gerer Chassidim in Poland, Malla Carl received her art education in Switzerland and the USA, and both her calligraphy and painting are firmly rooted in Western Europe aesthetics...
...At the moment, she is branching out into papercut murals and is interested in doing large commissioned works...
...It's hard to believe, in fact, that there's someone alive and well in Jerusalem today producing such exquisite ketubot and mizrachim in the classic style of Isfahan...
...Tucked away in different corners of the city, expressing themselves in various media, they are eager to share their work—and their Jerusalem—with the visitor...
...Today, he is a master craftsman, turning out extraordinary spice towers and tz'dakah boxes, m'zzuzot and etrog boxes in a wealth of more or less exotic woods...
...Born in Paris, educated in the U.S...
...Though she first came to live in Israel in the early SOs, and always worked in the field of Judaica, Malla was so absorbed in the perfection of the Gothic letter that it didn't occur to her until recently to turn to the Hebrew alphabet...
...Some of them have only recently come to an interest in Judaica...
...It is her larger works, however, that are truly overwhelming: semi-abstract, richly vibrant and glowing designs that could only have been made by a soul tuned in to Jerusalem...
...Olivewood eggs, silver-plated Chassidim and ceramic shaloms abound, and even the Arab vendors in East Jerusalem, bedecked in their checkered keffiyahs, can be counted on to have Yemenite, fili-greed kiddush cups or hand-painted candlesticks in stock for the inveterate tchatchke-hunler...
...Yehudit Shadur Rehov Hovevei Zion 12 Talbieh, Jerusalem Tel...
...Yakov Greenvurcel Jerusalem House of Quality 12 Derech Hebron Jerusalem Tel...
...Annette Fein 51 Derech Hebron Abu Tor, Jerusalem Tel...
...They are on display at the Jerusalem House of Quality, and Yakov can be found in his studio upstairs...
...BRINGING HOME JERUSALEM'S TREASURES An introduction to the city's outstanding artisans for the traveler who is searching for more than just a souvenir Ten portions of beauty were allotted to the world, it is said, and nine of them belong to Jerusalem...
...don't do embroidery for embroidery's sake, or Judaica because it's Judaica...
...his reproductions are so good that even the experts at the Israel Museum are rumored to have confused them with the originals...
...1 just get lit up by interesting ideas and start playing with them, putting my total self in my work, from the smallest thing to the biggest...
...from Yeshiva University), he began his career as a carpenter after making ally ah in 1968...
...Being in Israel helps, and learning has a lot to do with it," says Ruth Wieder, who studied in a yeshiva for three years after making aliyah from Australia nine years ago...

Vol. 8 • June 1983 • No. 6


 
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