Rituals differ between countries and cultures but their functions are the same. They help shape people’s lives, imbue moments with meanings. One of the many blessings of being Jewish is the manifold variety of rituals within our tradition – rituals that mark out the passage of time, the rhythms of the seasons, the milestones along life’s road, rituals that recall the history of the Jewish people and that structure both intimate and communal communication with the Eternal. Observing these rituals enriches people’s lives, connects them with the millennia of generations of Jews who preceded them.

While some Jewish rituals originated in biblical times, others have evolved in response to the changing Jewish world, reflecting both the internal life of Jewish communities and the external influences. 2000 years of diasporic living has resulted in many variations of customs (minhagim) in the observances of rituals, that incorporate the aesthetics and customs of the various host communities - German, Polish, Persian, Iraqi etc.

Ceremonial objects created for the performance of these rituals have an ancient history and indeed stretch back to Mount Sinai when God prescribed the exact shape, size, colour and materials for the Sanctuary in which God was to be worshipped and appointed a special person, Bezalel, the artist, to create the Sanctuary and cult objects (Exodus 31: 1 – 10). An enormous amount of Jewish ritual objects has evolved, the functions of which are twofold: primarily as tools for the performance of the ritual and secondly as aesthetic art designed to heighten the religious expression implicit in the ritual. Indeed it is regarded as a duty to sanctify the ritual by beautifying the instruments of its observance – the duty of hiddur mitzvah.

This Judaica is as varied as is the history of the Jewish people reflecting the diversity of the Jewish experience over continents and centuries. Many objects have similar functions – Shabbat candlesticks, circumcision knives, marriage canopies – but their forms reflect the culture in which their creators lived.[1]

Furthermore while one believes that rituals are immutable, quite the opposite is actually the case. Rituals are always being adapted, reinterpreted and reinvented in response to contemporary circumstances. This is a reason for Jewish survival – its ability to adapt to an ever-changing world, to remain relevant while maintaining core values and a shared history. The creation of new ritual objects illuminates the intersection of religious identity, contemporary social issues, and modern taste.

The development of a contemporary Jewish ritual art has flourished in the 20^th and now 21^st Centuries due to the establishment of the State of Israel and the proliferation of Jewish museums particularly in the United States.

From early in the 20^th Century, in the land of Israel, there were efforts to establish a national Jewish art. The encouragement of Jewish art was important to Zionism, under whose aegis an art academy was founded in Palestine, named after Bezalel. Zionism was the expression of the Jewish people's desire for self-realisation. Jewish art was to be a part of that realisation - it experiential, aesthetic part. This lead to the creation of a new and recognisable style of Jewish ritual objects. The motifs used for the creation of the Hebrew style were, then, drawn from the past (Jewish symbols, the works of Jewish artists, archaeology and the depiction of the Holy Places),from the present (Zionist symbols and figures) and from the environment of Eretz Israel (flora and fauna, ethnic prototypes and pioneer life, scenic and historical sites). Ancient elements were developed in a new light (the Hebrew letter, biblical topics). The Eastern influences were apparent in the forms, the materials and some of the shapes.

Etrog Box
Palestine, early 20th C
Bezalel Work Brass, silver, tapestry lining. Private collection. Courtesy the owner

Till today in Israel there is a thriving market for newly designed Judaica.

In 1956, The Jewish Museum, in New York, established an artist-in-residence program called the Tobe Pascher Workshop for artists to pioneer modernist ritual objects for use in the home or synagogue. Influential silversmiths that worked there include Ludwig Wolpert and Moshe Zabari. Indeed, Zabari visited and exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Australia in 1987.

Moshe Zabari (b.Palestine 1935)
Three Tiered Seder Plate, 1984
Sterling Silver. Private collection. Courtesy the artist

It also presented several exhibitions of artists who created contemporary Judaica and synagogue design such as American Synagogue Architecture curated by the noted architect Richard Meier in 1963.

The Jewish Museum of Australia too has had a most significant role in the development of contemporary Judaica.

Australian Jewish history is over 200 old. It is unique because of the particularity of living on an ancient island with an ancient people, and as a fully accepted part of a largely successful multicultural community, so far from the roots of Jewish life.

Jewish life has flourished on these Australian shores. So, in 1991, the Jewish Museum of Australia deemed it timely to encourage the development of indigenous Australian Jewish ceremonial artefacts. The outstanding success of the first exhibition was followed by a second in 1999. Both sought Australian artists and crafts-makers to create contemporary Judaica, to then display the work, to travel the exhibition Australia wide and then to incorporate some of the work into the collection of the Jewish Museum of Australia.

Hendrik Forster (b.Australia 1947)
Channukiah, 1999. Sterling silver
Collection: Jewish Museum of Australia
9005.33 E.M.Horton Acquisition Fund, 1999

Marion Marshall (b.Australia1948)
Marriage Ring, 1991
Fine silver, sterling silver, 18ct gold Repoussé Collection: Jewish Museum of Australia, 2578 Sara Weis Acquisition Fund.

These exhibitions were successful in encouraging the creation of indigenous Australian Judaica. They involved the best of Australia’s art workers, who loved the project (most of them not themselves Jewish). The second exhibition toured to 10 venues, reached audiences that would never know about Judaism and Jewish ritual practice otherwise and was received with great acclaim.

The third such exhibition in 2007, entitled New Under the Sun followed the same format, with a new and significant addition. The exhibition’s curator, Rebecca Forgasz, introduced a new focus namely the creation of Judaica for new Jewish ceremonies and rituals. Since the 1970s, a renewal of Jewish consciousness has seen a rapid surge in the creation of new forms of Jewish expression, largely driven by the feminist movement and responding to both personal and national events. Jewish women have noted female exclusion from traditional rituals and have sought to rectify this by creating new rituals and reappropriating older ones that had fallen into disuse. While many new rituals are gaining popularity, few corresponding ritual objects have been created, especially in Australia. In addition, several new festivals and commemorative days have been inserted into the Jewish calendar in the 20^th century in response to significant events, including the Holocaust. Many of these new rituals are now well-established in Jewish communal life or are gaining in popularity. Yet few corresponding ritual objects have been created, at least in Australia.

Numerous artists responded to this challenge, developing ideas for the creation of objects to use in naming ceremonies for girls and in commemorative services on Holocaust Remembrance Day and other ritual contexts.

Bern Emmerichs
Commemorative vessel no.2 for girl’s naming ceremony
Glazed and painted earthernware. Collection: Jewish Museum of Australia.

Anne Ross
Always Remember Never Forget (Yom Hashoah Candelabrum), 2007
Cast bronze, patinated, hand blown glass, paper. Collection: Jewish Museum of Australia.

Several Jewish museums in the United States and Israel have also recently exhibited contemporary Jewish ritual[2] responding to the same evolving rituals as well as current social issues that shape design responses. These include environmental concerns; increasing secularization which has led artists to seek meanings and rituals in their everyday lives and of course new technologies which have opened up the possibilities of new art and craft forms and hence ritual expressions.

Again I reference the Jewish Museum in New York which featured and travelled an exhibition: Reinventing Ritual: Contemporary Art and Design for Jewish Life in 2009 – 2010.[3]

For instance: Recycling materials in the interest of the environment and also for symbolic effect was evident in some of the works. An example of recycling is found in the Passover plates by two Israeli artists: Johnathan Hopp and Sarah Auslander which they made from old plates they bought at the Jaffa flea market and fired a traditional Passover plate onto them using a ceramic decal. The artists explained that "we were interested in the idea of taking discarded, forgotten objects and transforming them into precious objects traditionally seen as heirlooms".

Johnathan Hopp (Israel b.1975) & Sarah Auslander (Israel, b.US. 1973)
Passover Plates, 2004
5 Porcelain, ceramic decals. Courtesy the artists, Tel Aviv. In Reinventing Ritual catalogue p.56

Today’s contemporary Jewish ceremonial objects reflect Jewish life today in all its diversity and its complexity. They challenge, they delight and they locate temporally and geographically. They also connect with an enduring, enriching and adaptable tradition.

Dr Helen Light AM
February 2011