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Friday March 7, 1997

Students paint colors of Judaism during tallit-making workshop

RONNIE CAPLANE
Bulletin Correspondent

Katz touched her brush to the silk and, to the oohs and ahs of the group surrounding her, a deep, rich purple began to spread over the tallit-in-progress.

The workshop in tallit-making for sixth grade students and their parents at Redwood City's Temple Beth Jacob was part of the synagogue's bar and bat mitzvah Journeys program.

"We're making bar and bat mitzvah [more than] just a day," said Rabbi Nathaniel Ezray, adding that the goal of the program is to encourage youth to think about the serious side of the rite of passage. "What does it mean to take on the responsibility of being part of the Jewish community. What does it mean to be a Jew?"

In addition to the tallit workshop, the program includes a one-day retreat and the performance of mitzvot.

The tallit is a class project, incorporating artistic interpretations of what it means to be a Jew. When it's finished and the tzitzit tied, it will be dedicated at a Shabbat service. It will be available for members to use, as a prayer shawl at a bar or bat mitzvah or as a chuppah. Rabbi Ezray hopes to put the tallit on display when it's not in use.

The project began with children and parents drawing their interpretations of what it means to be Jewish.

Eleven-year-old David Landes expressed his Judaism through symbols like menorahs and the Torah. To his mother, Doreen Landes, being Jewish is represented by colors. Yellow for light, heart and spirituality, black for the hardships in Jewish history. For her, the color black also represents ignorance. In spite of being raised in an Orthodox synagogue, she was not taught much about Judaism. Next is blue, her favorite color. Finally, the whole design is enclosed in a circle representing cycles and universality.

Annie Green Saldinger and her 11-year-old daughter, Adva, worked together on one drawing portraying Judaism as a spiritual connection to nature with the ancient symbols of earth, fire, air and water.

With all the drawings spread out on the ground at her feet and a rubber-based glue in hand, artist Katz drew a design on the silk incorporating the group depiction of what Judaism means. Outlines of flames and spirals, circles and menorahs covered the silk, overlapping and intersecting each other, creating new designs.

While Katz drew, Ezray demonstrated how to tie a tzitzit, a skill the children will need in order to complete the tallit.

Next came the fun part. Positioned around the stretched silk, children and parents painted. As purples, maroons, oranges and reds were applied, a lively, brightly colored tallit emerged.

"I thought this would be fun, not an everyday art project," said 11-year-old Jessica Mann, who is considering wearing the tallit for her bat mitzvah. "I learned that on silk, paint spreads out and stops."

Julia Weissman, 11, also thought the project was fun, and likes the idea of contributing artwork to the temple.

For parent Coralie Scherer, the Journeys project and tallit painting recalls her own experience as a bat mitzvah at age 13.

"I led a Friday-night service but did not read from the Torah," Scherer said. The experience is only a vague memory now. "I think of a bar mitzvah as an ongoing process. I want my son to fully experience that."

A few years ago, her son, Daniel Quigley, decided on his own to become a bar mitzvah.

"I wanted to be part of a religion and go to Hebrew school," said Daniel, who seems to share his mother's vision of what a bar mitzvah is all about. He found the tallit-making fun and the finished product "beautiful."

"If I get the chance," he said, "I will wear it."

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