Tag Archives: cultural history

A Night at the (Beth Tzedec Reuben and Helene Dennis Museum) – Not scary at all!

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Anna VanDelman writes:

On Wednesday December 6th, three dozen Pomegranate Guild members and guests made their way through Beth Tzedec’s current renovations to the beautiful chapel for an evening of Judaic treasures – artifacts recycled and repurposed, in keeping with this year’s theme. Rkki Blitt introduced our speaker, Dorion Liebgott, who is both a long time Guild member and long time (25 years) curator of the Museum.

We sat in awe of the precious artifacts Dorion brought for our delight. Of particular interest to us as textile artists were items that involved the reuse of fabrics. These included a wimple (Torah binder) of German origin. The wimple was recycled from a infant’s swaddling cloth. It was cut into strips that were sewn together and embroidered with a formula including the child’s name, birth-date, and blessings. This binder would have been wrapped around the Torah used on the child’s 3rd birthday, his Bar Mitzvah and his wedding. We also examined was a Torah crown made of damask silk (rather than the usual silver) and a parochet (ark curtain) made of recycled fashion fabrics.

Dorion showed us Chanukah menorahs – one reconstructed from a rifle, and another made of empty bullet cartridges mounted on Plexiglas from the American Military – that demonstrate how Judaic ritual items can be made with objects and materials found immediately at hand.

Collaged Judaica
Chanukiah – rifle stock
Parochet – with text and pomegranate detail
Textile Torah crown
Parochet – pomegranate detail
Silver chanukiah
Parochet
Pidyon Ha-ben basin
Chanukiah – bullet casings
Wimple
Parochet

Sometimes conventional items have inscriptions added to make them suitable for Judaic purposes. We were shown a large pewter bowl with blessings inscribed with reference to the redemption of the first born son for the ceremony of Pidyon Ha Ben, and a seder plate that was also created by inscribing a standard pewter plate. In some cases items are adapted merely by use: a locked sugar box and open candy silver candy dish are two objects that have become etrog containers by declaring them so.

Several Yads (Torah pointers) demonstrated a collage approach, constructed by adding multiple small pieces of other objects to create a pointer. Their awkwardness in both appearance and function are clues to the “fakery” behind their construction.

Many of the precious objects Dorion showed us were from the Cecil Roth Collection in the Museum, and Dorion also shared the story of how the Reuben and Helene Dennis Museum acquired them. All the photographs in this post are published with the permission of the museum.

Rikki thanked Dorion, as we all did, for a fascinating evening teaching us that we can continually recycle and re-invent old artifacts into new treasures.

All the photographs in this post are published with the permission of the museum

Shirts Galore and A Trip to Japan

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Anna Vandelman writes:

Shirts Galore!
What a lovely evening! What a lovely programme! What a lovely turnout! What an amazing group!

Rapunzel - courtesy of Susan Avishai

Rapunzel – courtesy of Susan Avishai

Susan Avishai was introduced to us by Rikki Blitt as a heroine to the environment and saviour of all sorts of trash en route to landfills everywhere: A perfect way to start the season as our theme for the year is Do not waste – with a focus on reuse and recycling. [About Susan]

Susan, already a fine artist in drawing, painting, and collage, shared her journey to fibre arts through pictures of her work. She told us how she got into fibre arts after cleaning out her late mother’s belongings. After grieving over her mother’s clothes for six months, Susan finally found herself able to do something with this new stash. So, she moved from painting to textiles to making tapestries of her mom’s remnants. She discovered through life that it is in fact the journey and not the destination. She fondly remembers a teacher who told her “…you will feel when its right”.

And then, men’s shirts galore! We saw an incredible collage of men’s shirts, shirts taken apart with seams and buttons intact all quilted with polyfill. She works on smaller pieces and then sews them into larger works. Her goal, always, is to see what she can do with what is there. No, she is not sexist, she uses men’s shirts because of their uniformity of construction which lets her apply a system to their deconstruction.

The evening became magical as we witnessed the transformation of trash to exquisite art pieces .created by a visionary with a deep concern for the environment. Thank you Susan for this memorable experience!

Rikki then thanked her for a magnificent presentation and for kick-starting our year of Do not Waste and members had an opportunity to share from their own stashes.

The theme continued in October with A Night in Japan, and Karen Sanders writes:

Our October meeting included a lesson in Japanese Furoshiki and a visit to Japan through the eyes of our President.

Furoshiki
Four women from the Japanese Cultural Centre came to tell us the history and to demonstrate the ancient Japanese art of Furoshiki, the use of textile squares for wrapping. Furoshiki refers to a flat folded bundle originally used to carry clothes back and forth from the bath-house. With current environmental concerns, there has been a revival of this old practice.

The most common size of fabric for wrapping is an 18” or 24” square of fabric. A silk scarf is ideal for the purpose of wrapping, though other sizes and fabrics can also be used.

There are many uses of Furoshiki including carrying, storage, gift wrap, wall hanging, tote bag, carrier for contributions to a pot luck meal. The squares are easy to maintain, eco friendly, easy to fold flat. The squares can be left as gifts or put in a pocket or purse to reuse.

Our guests demonstrated the basic knot, flat object wrap, basic carry wrap, bottle carry wrap, hand bag, watermelon carry bag, and shoulder bag. We had an opportunity to try our skill at wrapping.

The art of Furoshiki is simple, elegant, useful and fulfills our mission of reusing and recycling beautiful fabrics.

Living Singly and Jewishly in Japan
Nearly thirty years ago our President, Bruria, was young, single, teaching English and living in Japan. She found that it was easy to be Jewish because there was a synagogue and community centre, which included a swimming pool. Expatriate Jews gathered regularly for Shabbat dinners and for Jewish holidays.

In a slide presentation, Bruria illustrated a number of Jewish subjects she encountered in Japan. These included a Japanese Yiddish Club, The Fugu Plan (a book telling the story of how the Japanese rescued Jews during the Holocaust), the story of Chiune Sugihara, who gave exit visas to Jews during World War II. There was a Jewish dentist, a Chabad branch with a mikvah and a Japanese man who had converted and become a Rabbi. There was a man with an excellent collection of Hebrew manuscripts and a Japanese pro-Israel group.

The rest of the slide show illustrated the quirkiness of the Japanese. Bruria shared such interesting things to be found in the grocery store as bottles of diet water, hard boiled eggs in a tube, and sushi with “Hello Kitty” faces. She showed us a road going through a building and some of the many space saving devices like shoe drawers on the underside of steps or a combined toilet/sink. There were dogs dressed in kimonos, women dressed as dolls, and men dressed as women. These are just a few examples. Bruria had a good time in Japan, but we are glad she came back to us!