Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis

Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family memory and fellowship Jodi Eichler-Levine takes readers inside a flourishing American Jewish crafting movement. As she traveled across the country to homes craft conventions synagogue knitting circles and craftivist actions she joined in the making asked questions and contemplated her own family stories. Jewish Americans many of them women are creating ritual challah covers and prayer shawls ink clay or wood pieces and other articles for family friends or Jewish charities. But they are doing much more: armed with perhaps only a needle and thread they are reckoning with Jewish identity in a fragile and dangerous world.<br/><br/>The work of these crafters embodies a vital Judaism that may lie outside traditional notions of Jewishness but Eichler-Levine argues these crafters are as much engaged as any Jews in honoring and nurturing the fortitude memory and community of the Jewish people. Craftmaking is nothing less than an act of generative resilience that fosters survival. Whether taking place in such groups as the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework or the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh or in a home studio these everyday acts of creativity—yielding a needlepoint rabbi say or a handkerchief embroidered with the Hebrew words <i>tikkun olam</i>—are a crucial part what makes a religious life.