A Class I’m Teaching

I’m teaching this class at my synagogue.
CREATE A PIECE OF SYNAGOGUE ART IN FABRIC
With Fabric Artist Sarah Jacobs
In this workshop, we’ll create a “Bein Gavra” – the fabric covering that is placed over the Torah between aliyot — for the Sanctuary. The words bein gavra literally mean in between the people, meaning between the olim. The goal of these sessions is to create something beautiful that will both enhance and reflect our experience of being close to the Torah. We’ll spend the first session or two exploring our relationship to Torah both as individuals and as a community, and using that discussion to together design and create a piece that is meaningful and beautiful, as well as practical. The remainder of the sessions will be spent working on making the “Bein Gavra”. This workshop is open to all – adults and children over the age of 10. No sewing or fabric art experience is required.
5 Tuesdays 7:30-9 pm
Beginning October 25
Materials fee $15

My class and I chose text for the Bein Gavra. That took two sessions. We also based the design using elements of thwe room the bein Gavra will be used in.

Some of the class participants have worked with their hands, other’s not. I decided that using stencils and Shiva oil paint sticks would be forgiving enough even for the least experienced.We cut most of the stencils last week.

I bought more Shiva paint stick and have been testing them out on the velvet. Tonight my students stencil.

Gold metallic over white

Some of the lettering

Gold stencil minus the white underlay, yes we need the white

A column

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Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

A Passover loss

My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...

sarah in nyc

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