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Beautifying the mitzvah


by Cathy Polakoff

Special to DJW

Gary Rosenthal wants to make an impact on the world through art and service.

"Who can say bad things about art?" asks the artist, whose studio is in Kensington, Md., outside of Washington, D.C. "This is a way to have art be a catalyst for service, and for education and community building."

Rosenthal, who has been sculpting for 30 years, was in Dallas earlier this week for a Hiddur Mitzvah Weekend at Temple Emanu-El. Workshop participants were able to create a number of Judaic objects, from dreidels to tzedakah boxes, for their personal use or as gifts to communities in Israel, Argentina and the Ukraine, among others.

The Hiddur Mitzvah Project (hiddur mitzvah means beautification of a commandment) grew out of the self-taught sculptor's desire to help people create their own functional Judaic art, thereby fulfilling one of Torah's 613 commandments.

The project, which began last May, has expanded and is gradually transforming into a tzedakah (charity) and service project.

"It would seem to me to be a shame to just make more work and sell it," commented Rosenthal, explaining that his main interest now is the Hiddur Mitzvah Project.

His goal, he says, is to "figure out how to do these higher-level things, because that's really what's of interest to me now."

A letter from a friend who had moved to California sparked the idea for the project. A few months earlier, as a going-away gift, Rosenthal had invited the friend and his family to his studio to make their own Judaica to take with them.

This friend's child made a tzedakah box, which he later showed off at his Hebrew school class. "His mom sent me a letter saying that the teacher had thought it [the box] was beautiful, and wished they could do something like that there," Rosenthal said.

"It was just a fun thing," continued the artist, whose work can be seen in such places as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery and The Skirball Museum in California, "but it got me thinking, 'how can I do this, how can I make this work?'"

The Emanu-El weekend came about when Anina Weinreb, the synagogue's gift shop director, was visiting her sister in the Washington area and stopped at Rosenthal's shop.

She quickly fell in love with the art, the artist said, and was told about the blossoming Hiddur Mitzvah Project, at the time primarily a series of kits for use in educational settings.

"She wanted to know when I could come out to Dallas to do this, and I told her I wasn't ready yet. She called me up a couple of weeks later and asked, 'How's Nov. 22?'" Rosenthal said with a laugh.

The Hiddur Mitzvah Weekend, which attracted hundreds of people over a three-day period and was co-chaired by Weinreb and Kay Schachter, included a series of workshops and demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday, and special projects with the temple's pre-school and kindergarten classes, the Senior Leisure Club and Wise Academy.

Parents and grandparents were invited to participate with the children, creating mezuzot for the students to display at home.

The weekend attracted out-of-towners as well as local residents. Atlanta's Enid Holland and Orlando's Madeleine Adamo came specifically to do this project with their granddaughter, 2-year-old Elle Holland.

Said Holland, "We were both very excited to meet him [Gary], and we both have tons of his stuff in our homes. This was an opportunity to meet him and to spend time with our granddaughter."

Describing the reason for the success of these projects, Rosenthal said, "You hear stories about where somebody is in a movie theater and they yell 'fire' -- this activity is so much fun for the kids and for the family, that it's almost like somebody yelling 'create'."

He then smiled, adding, "You know, this is the program I was born to do."


This story was published in the DallasJewishWeek
on: Thursday, November 27, 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Copyright 2003, Dallas Jewish Week