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A few of the illustrations I made for the HIAS Haggadah. This Haggadah provides stories and prompts to help us connect to the contemporary refugee experience on the night where we remember our own journey from suffering to freedom. You can download it at hias.org/passover or buy a paperback copy at amazon.com/dp/1091939942.

Mail’s here! The latest entry in my annual tradition of Purim package design once again involves creating elaborate boxes to fulfill the ritual of mishloach manot, giving gifts of food to friends. (Find the last few years’ here,here,here,here,here, and here.) This year involves literally sending food in envelope-boxes. The Happy Purim message and stamp are cut out of the paper and backed with Fruit by the Foot — the best tasting stamp you’ll ever lick. The cancellation is marked 14 Adar (today’s Hebrew date) and ringed with the words describing this tradition from the Megillah: מִשְׁלֹחַ מָנוֹת, אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ (“sending items to their fellows,” Esther 9:19). It’s marked in the corner “Peace + Truth” from me, echoing the letters of peace and truth Mordechai wrote to Jews across the kingdom (Esther 9:30). And who couldn’t use a little peace and truth these days? Enjoy, and Happy Purim!

jewishtraces:

Anshe Kenesseth Israel, 1913-2012

3411 W. Douglas Blvd, North Lawndale, Chicago

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New project alert! I’m fascinated by monumental architecture, asserting identity through design, adaptive reuse, and history as told through material culture. All of that comes together in the exploration of former Jewish spaces. To that end, I started a new site highlighting former synagogues from around the US. Who built them? What happened to their communities? What did they leave behind? Come discover with me. Check out jewishtraces.tumblr.com. 

I made a haggadah! I had the privilege of working with author Shawn Becker to make his Passover haggadah a reality. He wanted a haggadah that was bright, engaging, thought-provoking, and accessible to all, regardless of Jewish knowledge or previous seder experience. It’s non-traditional in many ways but remains rooted in the historic structure and rituals of the night. He provided the text and inspiration and I designed and illustrated the book in a style that was a bit of a departure for me. Pick up your own copy at sharingtheseder.com.

Happy Purim! What would you do if you had the opportunity to address the king? It’s become a tradition of mine to celebrate Purim with package design, creating elaborate boxes to fulfill the ritual of mishloach manot, giving gifts of food to friends. (Find the last few years’ here,here, here,here, and here.) This year, the boxes depict King Achashverosh’s palace, the architecture inspired by Taq Kasra, an ancient Persian palace near modern Baghdad. (Yes, it’s a little anachronistic, but it’s an incredible building.) Open the doors and find yourself face to face with the king on his throne. Imagine yourself in Esther’s shoes, petitioning for the safety of her people. Tucked behind a false wall is a hidden treasure of chocolate bars and pistachios. The back has a Purim message from me. Enjoy!

And when it’s dry and ready!! Happy first night of Chanuka!

Wishing everyone a shana tova and g’mar chatima tova this Yom Kippur. May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life.

The painting is called “Kol Shofar” and is spray paint on birch board.

I have wanted to paint in the Melrose Alleys—a stretch of alleys on either side of Melrose Ave. between Fairfax and La Brea, famous for its street art—since I was twelve years old. Two decades later, I finally had the chance. For the latest addition to my collection of Hebrew murals, I partnered with JQ International to paint a mural dedicated to gay and Jewish pride. Included in the morning liturgy is a blessing originally written to be said by women that reads, “Blessed are you, God … for making me as intended,” in Hebrew, “she'asani kirtzono.” This bold statement that God created each of us intentionally in these myriad bodies and forms has distinct echoes of #bornthisway, though a millennium older than hashtags. As a result, this controversial blessing has become a succinct and powerful articulation of gay pride in a Jewish context.

The mural features the blessing in Hebrew—שֶׁעָשַֽׂנִי כִּרְצוֹנוֹ—and the rough translation “I was made as intended” on a vibrant rainbow background. The rainbow flag was designed in California, adding a layer of connection between this piece and its location. It is likely that this mural, at 90 feet long and 8.5 feet tall, is the second largest Jewish mural in Los Angeles, and LA’s largest extant queer mural.

In addition to its art, the area around Melrose happens to be a crossroads of historic Jewish neighborhoods and gay neighborhoods, making the placement of the mural meaningful to multiple constituencies. I hope this mural brings people together and breaks down the barriers between those who might otherwise not interact. It was a lovely surprise that within days of finishing the mural, people were already posting photos on Instagram reflecting on the blessing and its message. It helps that the colors are irresistible! Now help me spread the love!

[Update! The mural is now complete! See it here]

Help me paint a mural with JQ! 

I’m working with JQ International, which “builds and strengthens a community that nurtures a healthy fusion of LGBTQ and Jewish identities” to paint a Jewish-queer pride mural in Los Angeles–and we need your help! 

Included in the morning liturgy is a blessing originally written for women that says in Hebrew, “she'asani kirtzono” roughly translated as “Blessed are you, God … for making me according to your will” or “for making me as intended.” This bold statement that God created each of us intentionally in these myriad bodies and forms has distinct echoes of #bornthisway, though a millennium older than hashtags. As a result, this blessing has become a succinct and powerful articulation of gay pride in a Jewish context. The mural will feature this blessing in the original Hebrew and in English in my characteristic playful typographic style over a rainbow background. (See photohopped renderings of what the mural will look like above, and find other Hebrew mural’s I’ve painted here,here,here, and here.)

The mural will be located in the Melrose Alleys, a stretch of alleys on either side of Melrose Avenue between Fairfax and La Brea, that are famous for street art and have been the canvas for such luminaries as Shepard Fairey and Banksy. That area of the city also happens to be a crossroads of historic Jewish neighborhoods and gay neighborhoods, making the placement of the mural especially meaningful. At 90 feet long, it would be likely the largest extant queer mural and the second largest Jewish mural in Los Angeles!

We hope to raise $1500 to cover supplies and time dedicated to creating the mural. JQ is the fiscal sponsor for this project, and all donations made in support are tax deductible, and all money raised in excess of our goal will support future JQ programming. Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Donate and read more about the project here. Thank you!

bestomerever:

Thank you for following the Best Omer Ever!

I had a fun time making these Omer GIFs, and I hope you enjoyed counting with them even more. Stay tuned for further Omer updates!

If you’re on Jewish design withdrawal, be sure to follow my weekly Parsha Posters project here.

Until next year!

-Hillel Smith

Another year of the Best Omer Ever down! Thanks to all who followed the GIF the Omer Omer counter.

I’m also stoked that Jewniverse did a great piece on this Omer project last week. Stay tuned for next year when the Omer returns!

Shabbat, Solomon Yudovin

Bagel vendor, Bessarabia, 1870-1880s

The Get (The Divorce), Yehuda Pen, 1907

A Rabbi, Krasnaya Sloboda, 1978-1980, by Nodar Djindjihashvili (American, b. Russia, 1939-2002)

These photographs are only a tiny part of those we succeeded in taking during a two-year secret journey through all of Russia, in search of the vestiges of a once thriving Jewish life and culture within what is now the USSR. I planned the journey many years ago, but only in 1978 (prior to my departure from the Soviet Union) was I able to make the trip, accompanied by my friend, Albert Ben-Zion. It was the first of its kind and, I believe, the last; it was for me, the most depressing yet, in some ways, the most exciting experience of my life.

My grandfather, a distinguished scholar and rabbi, gave me much of my early education. My father a prominent attorney during the time when faith in Marxism still inspired much of the Soviet intelligentsia, believed that progress toward the new Socialist justice and decency went hand in hand with the relinquishing of one’s religious tradition. I always vacillated between these two poles, alternatively intrigued and repelled by my Jewishness. My journey was partly an attempt to resolve this conflict, as well as a search for answers to the questions that had haunted me for years.

Most important to me were the answers I found during the journey. It seems to me now that being Jewish and embracing it pushes one beyond the boundary of a nationality or a minority condition. It forces one to get deeply involved in a perpetual situation, to which there is only one answer - that is, to stay within the Jewish faith. Once this is recognized by a Jew, his or her individual situation becomes a justification for existence.

It is the life of the vast majority of Soviet Jews that I wished to preserve in my photographs. These Jews are struggling to maintain their religious and cultural heritage in the Soviet Union, despite the difficulties and the threat of extinction. I realized my mission was to record the remnants Russian Jewish culture before it vanished. The more I traveled, the more I realized that I also wanted to photograph the people who are trying to retain Jewish culture.

- Nodar Djindjihashvili  

Strange Worlds(1928),Todros Geller, American, born Russia (now Ukraine), 1889–1949.

Shabbat,Alexander Roitburd, 2014.

Rabbi Hendel Lieberman, a Lubavitcher hasid and friend of Schachter’s in New York, lowering a food can into a sukkah, ca. 1960. Photograph by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, 1924-2014.

President of Israel Zalman Shazar toasts the Lubavitcher Rebbe At 770, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 1973. Photograph by Jerry Dantzic.

Father and Son at 770, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 1973, photograph by Jerry Dantzic.