Lots of thoughts in my head

My dear friend Marcia (known in our family as Tanta Marcia) invited me to go to a lecture yesterday about Ludwig Wolpert given by a Ph.D. candidate at Bard who was writing her dissertation about Wolpert's work during his New York years. Well, going to such a lecture is high up on my idea of fun.

I finally learned the name of Wolpert's first metalsmithing teacher, Christian Dell. Clearly there was a strong dell influence in Wolpert's work.

You can see how the use of actual text used during the ritual when the cup is used rather than Dell's glyphs created a more powerful, more meaningful piece.

I loved the lecture, loved seeing deeply familiar and beloved work by Mr. Wolpert. I went home feeling very happy.

I knew that something special would be awaiting me.

My father's father was born in Konin, Poland and arrived in New York before WW1. My father's mother was born here, but both of her parents were born there too. Our name in Poland was Jakubowitz.We had learned by reading this book

that there was a Jakubowitz from Konin, Mike, who had survived Auschwitz although most of his family had perished. My father and Mike spoke to one another enjoyed the conversation but had no idea if they were actually related.

One of my sisters did 23 and Me, and we discovered that we are indeed related. My new cousin Deborah figured out that our great-grandfathers were brothers. yesterday Deborah's brother Mark came by for a visit.

We shared old photo albums. We talked and talked. I kept looking at Mark's face and despite only meeting him yesterday, it is a face that I know.

So, with thought's of Wolpert in my head and of this new branch of my family, I got to work on my future son-in-law's tallit.

I had sworn up and down that I would not make fringe for his tallit. Pulling threads to make fringe is tedious boring work. I was telling my future son-in-law how I probably would not make fringe because it is a task I hate. A friend was part of the conversation and told me how much her children play with the fringe on the ends of her tallit. My friend continued with my daughter and her fiancee laughing telling me that I needed to make fringe for my future grandchildren. I caved.

There are 90 inches of fringe.

This is the reverse of the tallit.

There is more work left to go