Magical Menorahs - Maryland Life Magazine Article

Maryland Life Magazine has a wonderful article about Gary and the studio in their most recent issue:

The menorahs in Gary Rosenthal’s Judaica-filled studio are a feast for the eyes. Intricate curls of copper and brass twist like branches around triangles of mosaic glass. The metal sprouts into flowers, leaves, and even a treble clef as it winds its way up the candelabrum. On one piece, two copper snakes wrap their way up the base, forming a caduceus.

These aren't your bubbe’s menorahs.
“When I started 35 years ago, there was just no such thing as contemporary Jewish art,” Rosenthal explains while leading me on a tour of his Kensington studio. “So I told myself, ‘I'll create Jewish art, but also a true piece of art.’”

Today, the effort, which Rosenthal summarizes as “contemporary style rooted in tradition,” has bloomed into a thriving business. Located in the Howard Avenue Antiques District, his studio is a two-floor operation where a dozen or so artisans buzz in a flurry of design, glass cutting, and welding.

Check out the full article for more!

Hiddur Mitzvah Article in The New Standard

The New Standard, in central Ohio, just published a really nice front page article about Gary and the Hiddur Mitzvah Project that's worth a read:

“After the Holocaust some people were
afraid to show Judaica. My mission was
to create beautiful Jewish art. I wanted to
make beautiful bright color mezuzahs. I
wanted Judaic art objects that people could
display year round. I always tried to mix
function with the aesthetics of the form,”

 Read the whole thing here.

Baltimore Jewish Times Article

Baltimore Jewish Times iNSIDER just posted a feature on "A Colorful Shabbat Table," and included our SC3 candlesticks among their recommendations:

Original article.

Dickinson College

Check out the cover of the most recent issue of Dickinson Magazine!

Another Tzedakah Article

Happy Hanukkah to all!  I hope everyone's holiday is an enjoyable one.  I'd like to share another article the features Gary talking about the importance of Tzedakah as well as the history of Tzedakah boxes.

Charity Boxes Coming Into Their Own for Hanukkah

Boxes for charity remain workhorses in Jewish life but have come into their own as gifts

The Associated Press

By LEANNE ITALIE Associated Press

November 30, 2010 (AP)

Invited to a Hanukkah party? Consider a charity box as a worthy gift that goes straight to the core of Jewish life.

...The Torah promises that by giving tzedakah, "a person's mind and heart become refined one thousand times." Beautifying the performance of the fundamental command through a keepsake tzedakah box can help revive the practice of charity collection in Jewish homes, said Gary Rosenthal, an artist who has been creating pieces of Judaica since the 1970s.
Menorahs, dreidels, cups for Sabbath wine and seder plates for Passover have been popular gifts for decades, he said. Tzedakah boxes for home use are a relatively new addition.
"Twenty years ago I tried to make a tzedakah box and nobody would buy it," said Rosenthal, in Kensington, Md. "Everybody did it at synagogue but it wasn't something for the home. More Orthodox and traditional Jews had them but there was this lost generation after World War II when tzedakah boxes just fell off the radar."
Rosenthal often works in copper, brass and steel adorned with glass to create ritual items and Jewish gifts. He expects to sell nearly 6,000 tzedakah boxes worldwide by year's end, including a limited-edition streetcar with a portion of proceeds going to the Jewish community in New Orleans. He also has a line decorated with pink glass mosaics designed by people touched by breast cancer to support their cause.
"I like to combine art with doing good, when the purchase is actually an act of tzedakah," Rosenthal said.
More contemporary designers like Rosenthal have delved into Jewish life in recent decades, said Stacey Zaleski, director of merchandising for The Jewish Museum in New York City...

The full article is interesting as well and can be read here.

Tzedakah and Hanukkah

A nice little AP article via Yahoo features a few of our tzedakah boxes, including the New Orleans street car and custom wall piece:

Tzedakah wall box from Gary Rosenthal

This product image courtesy of The Gary Rosenthal Collection shows a tzedakah wall box from The Gary Rosenthal Collection. Gifting a tzedakah box in fun or fancy form is more closely associated with weddings, awards and Bar Mitzvahs than the eight-day festival of lighting candles, spinning dreidels and eating fried foods. That, said purveyors and creators of Jewish gifts and ritual items, doesn't mean a charity box wouldn't make a positive reminder come Hanukkah time.

Holy Latke! Is it Hanukkah Already?

An interesting article in which Gary is quoted.

By Leanne Italie, Associated Press

A menorah with tall lit candles in New York. Hahukkah starts early this year. AP Photo

Rabbi Mark Sobel, the spiritual leader of a Reform-rooted synagogue in Burbank, Calif., enjoys "winter" carols come Hanukkah and Christmastime, but this year is a little different.

The Jewish faith's eight days of candle lighting, prayers, latkes and dreidel fun begins Wednesday, before carolers get in the swing and so soon after Thanksgiving there might just be some leftovers still in the fridge.

Hanukkah's on the early side — on the Gregorian calendar anyway — along with other major Jewish observances this year.

Some Jews are looking forward to a little distance between Hanukkah and the Christmas madness. It helps, they said, in staving off the perception that the Festival of Lights is a Christmas wannabe. Others started panicking before their Thanksgiving bird was defrosted.

For Sobel, it won't change the way he celebrates, save a tinge of remorse that non-Jewish neighbors and friends won't yet be in the holiday spirit.

"The feeling of total holiday season is not there," said Sobel, from the independent Temple Beth Emet.

Jewish festivals and commemorations begin on different Gregorian dates each year because they're set by a lunar-based Hebrew calendar adjusted to ensure certain ones fall during certain seasons.

Wyckoff, N.J., mom Caryn Kasmanoff, who has two teenagers and a 9-year-old, notes that Hanukkah is a very minor holiday, religiously speaking, in relation to Passover and other biblically mandated observances. It's nowhere near as important as Christmas is to Christians, but the comparisons can be harder on Jewish kids when the two holidays stand alone on the calendar, she said.

"As Christmas gets closer and children in school get more excited, their 'party' is over," Kasmanoff said. "So yes, as a parent, it's easier for the religions to share the festive feeling."

That can also be true for more secular Jews and interfaith families who will be packing away their menorahs after Hanukkah only to start prepping for Christmas. Or for people who focus on Thanksgiving as the big-deal holiday with barely any time to de-stress before Hanukkah shopping and party planning must be done.

"The world doesn't stop for Hanukkah," said Jennifer Prost, who has kids ages 16 and 12 in Montclair, N.J. "My kids still have tests to study for and papers to write. When Hanukkah is closer to Christmas, the kids are off from school, work schedules slow, evening meetings are off the table."

For the college set, on-campus Hanukkah might mean missing mom's potato latkes, but their family's not-home-for-the-holidays loss could be Ralph Taber's gain. He's the director of the Klehr Center for Jewish Life at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and a programmer for Hillel, the foundation for Jewish campus life.

"The timing of Hanukkah this year is perfect because it will occur before classes end," he said. "We know that students will be willing to attend more on-campus Hanukkah events."

As a parent, Taber is happy for Hanukkah's quick approach. He'll be done with shopping and celebrations just as Christmas is crowding stores and yuletide travel is clogging roads.

But some sellers of Jewish-related gifts said "early" Hanukkah can mean slow going.

"When it's close to Christmas, it's celebrated much more actively," said Gary Rosenthal, who creates menorahs, charity boxes and other Judaica out of metals and fused glass. "When Hanukkah is close to Thanksgiving it's passed us before we even know what happened. It's not good or bad. It's just the way it is."

Read the rest of the article here.

Another Article

A nice mention here at marconews.com:

Temple Shalom has every kind of menorah imaginable, but the ones I was drawn to were from the Gary Rosenthal Collection.

Rosenthal has sculpted in welded metals for more than 30 years and this menorah ($110) is identical to the one presented to President Bill Clinton. Former President Jimmy Carter also received a menorah from the Rosenthal Collection.

Another one from Rosenthal has a dreidel attached ($120) that sets the tone of the holiday. If you like things neat and clean, this plain silver ($30) one is for you. It is also available in a gold tone.

Original article here

The Hiddur Mitzvah Project and a Special Bat Mitzvah

When Cindy and Greg Goussak, members of Midbar Kodesh Temple of Las Vegas, Nevada, began to plan their daughter Ariel’s bat mitzvah, to make the process especially meaningful they knew they wanted to incorporate a hands-on mitzvah project for her bnai mitzvah class.  The 11 students in the class also happened to include one who is autistic and has been learning how to sign the blessings for the Torah reading and several of the Shabbat morning tefillot. Were he living in Israel, it is unlikely he would be able to prepare for or celebrate his bar mitzvah the way he is doing at Midbar Kodesh unless he had the good fortune to be part of the Masorti Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program for Children with Special Needs. All of which gave Rabbi Bradley Tecktiel, the rabbi at Midbar Kodesh, a great idea.  Rabbi Tecktiel suggested that the bnai mitvah class twin with Masorti’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program for Children with Special Needs, Israel’s only national program to provide Jewish enrichment and a group bnai mitzvah ceremony at a Masorti kehilla for youngsters who would not otherwise have the chance to celebrate this milestone.  The Goussaks, who were helping to fund the project, invited Judaica artist Gary Rosenthal to spend a weekend at Midbar Kodesh as artist-in-residence and to work with the children. Each student made two yads, one for him or herself, the other to donate to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program for Children with Special Needs. These personalized gifts are being finished by the artist and when ready, will be sent to Israel, where they can be used by the special needs children during their bnai mitzvah celebrations.  “The young people at Midbar Kodesh are getting a real lesson in the Jewish values of tikkun olam, tolerance and inclusion, while also making a personal connection to Israel and learning about one of the Masorti movement’s unique contributions to life there,” said Rabbi Tecktiel. “I am very proud of their commitment to this project and especially grateful to the Goussak family for their generous contribution, which has made it possible.”

Original

"Kensington Artist Staging Fundraiser for Arts Education"

Gary is involved in much more than just his sculpture studio and business.  One of his other involvements is Theatre Lab School of Dramatic Arts in DC where he serves on their board of directors.  The Gazette just published a nice article about an important fundraising effort by the school with Gary at the head.  They are currently raising money to fund a scholarship to allow children to attend who would not otherwise be able.

Kensington artist Gary Rosenthal is sponsoring an event May 21 to kick-off a fundraising campaign directed at creating scholarships for at-risk children.
"Theater is just so empowering, especially for young children," Rosenthal said. "I've seen it with my own children and these at-risk kids; it doesn't just teach you about make believe, it teaches you about real life."
He said he hopes to raise at least $55,000 to send more than 100 children disenfranchised by poverty to summer camps hosted by the Theatre Lab School of Dramatic Arts in Washington, D.C.
The Summer Acting Camps for Kids and the Musical Theatre Camp for Kids serves children as old as 13, and aims to introduce children to artistic expression and cultivate their self-confidence.
Rosenthal owns and operates an art studio in Kensington and is a Judaic artist who specializes in combining copper, brass and steel with glass to create pieces. He also is a member of the Theatre Lab's Board of Directors.
Tickets are $75. The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 21 at the school, 733 8th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.
For more information or to make a donation, visit www.theatrelab.org or call 202-824-0449.

Mother's Day 2

Only a few more days until Mother's day, but it's not too late to get a gift if you haven't yet!  Another online store, The Jewish Gift Place, has a top ten gift list and two Gary Rosenthal items made the cut:

Does your mom love to read? If so, the Gary Rosenthal Woman of Valor Marble Bookends would make an exceptional and personal gift. They feature a beautiful picture of a woman of valor on one side, and an inspirational poem on the other. One verse states, “Her children rise up and call her blessed.” What could be more fitting for Mother’s Day? In addition, these bookends by world-renowned artist, Gary Rosenthal, can be personalized with your own heartfelt words.

 Photographic memories are some of our most cherished possessions. Any mother would be proud to display a favorite family photo in the Gary Rosenthal 5x7 Picture Frame with Heart and Glass Bead. The frame itself is a stunning work of art, handcrafted and sculpted from mixed metals and fused glass. An added bonus is that this frame can be personalized with your own message to mom.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is fast approaching and the folds at The Jewish Hostess have put together a nice list of Judaica gift ideas.  Among their suggestions is the newest GRC challah board (the cboard4) that replaces the traditional wooden board with an attractive slab of marble.

Gary Rosenthal:
Gary Rosenthal has been sculpting in welded metals for over 20 years. He is self-taught and his popular style is unique and reflects a rare sensitivity to both his materials and his subject.
Rosenthal sculpture has been commissioned by the International Special Olympics Committee for the 1978 World Games, the Miss Dance America Trophy and the annual membership awards for B’nai Brith International. Mr. Rosenthal’s art has also been used as presentations for individuals as varied as Presidents Carter and Clinton, John Travolta and musician Issac Stern.
This challah tray is a chic modern classic.

Copper in the Arts

Gary Rosenthal and his work is featured in the latest issue of Copper in the Arts, found at Copper.org.

Copper in the Arts: HISTORY

Gary Rosenthal Collection: Contemporary Judaica Art Rooted in Tradition

By Michael Cervin

When Gary Rosenthal dropped out of college for a year to work for his father, a stove repairman, he never knew it would ignite his affinity for copper. But one day, when Rosenthal was torching a cast iron stove's heavy grates, something clicked. 

“I pretty much I fell in love with fire at that point,” he says offhandedly. During this time he also tinkered with metal sculpting, then went back to college to obtain his degree in Industrial Labor Relations from Cornell University. He showed his handiwork to a metal artist professor who bluntly told Rosenthal he didn’t possess any sense of aesthetics, color, form, light or shape. As he waited for the final insult, the professor said, “People are going to love your work and it will sell like crazy.” 

Today, that has proven to be an understatement. 

“I’m self taught, but I have a knack for making things people like,” Rosenthal admits. He started making artistic pieces out of copper sheets, cut nails and steel rods; figurines of “people doing things,” as he puts it. Like a fully formed one inch figure “skiing” down white limestone, or a 50 pound rock with two figures on it with a thin copper wire between them so they looked like rock climbers. He was showing his work at a Jewish community center in Baltimore and someone asked him to make a menorah. So he set out to make several, and they all sold out like proverbial hotcakes. Rosenthal soon realized his niche and quickly filled the need for people in search of handmade copper Judaica, like menorahs, candlesticks, goblets, Seder plates and other objects for use in temple ceremonies or in someone’s home. 

“We were ahead of the curve and we dominated the market,” he says. “After WWII America became such a nice open place to live that people began to feel comfortable and at that point Judaica was a market niche that needed to be filled. I know the houses were empty of Judacia because mine was.” At his zenith he employed 50 people working overtime to keep up with demand. “When I first got started I went to the junk yard and got copper scrap, but now we buy a couple of tons of sheet copper each year,” he says. That sheet is often 16 or 20 ounce from roofing supply companies, even up to 1/8 inch plate. But copper markets have changed and copper is now sourced from all over. “I prefer to get materials from this country as it’s been my experience that the quality is higher,” he admits, speaking of some frustrating experience with foreign brass. For his sheets he will cut it down, punch it out to create details on his pieces, even using 3/8 diameter copper wire. And his collection of Judaicia is very contemporary, exuding a playfulness with his use of form and colored copper, something his old art professor would be proud of.

All the U.S. presidents since Jimmy Carter, and other heads of state, have received his work as gifts from other heads of state. Recently a group of Jewish diplomats on the way to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Morocco commissioned Gary to make a set of dreidels each with personalized plates the tops can spin on, which were then given to prime ministers. “Of all the metals we work with, stainless steel, bronze and brass, copper’s my favorite, the way it looks, the way we can color it both hot and cold,” he says. “You go all the way back to the original ark of the covenant and copper was used on it.” Copper therefore has a sacred background. “For me, it's God’s metal,” he says.

In addition to finding his work at stores nationwide, his work is also available in such noted museum gift shops like the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, Corning Museum of Glass in New York, the American Craft Museum, Skirball Museum of Culture in Los Angeles, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Original article

A Gary Rosenthal Artwork Sighting

 We often personalize many items, as well as create custom awards, to be presented to all sorts of people.  It's always nice to hear about these pieces making it successfully to their destination!

Jewish Family and Children's Service honored former Long Beach Mayor Tom Clark (introduced by James Hankla, the former Long Beach city manager); former state Sen. Betty Karnette (introduced by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre); and former Long Beach councilwoman Renee Simon, who is also a JFCS past president (introduced by past president Jean Blakey).

There were 250 guests welcomed by Chair Myrna Simon at the group's Service Award Brunch held Jan. 31 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The three honorees are on the JFCS Advisory Board and were honored for their dedication and sustained work on behalf of JFCS of Greater Long Beach/West Orange County.

Steve Gordon, president of the JFCS Board of Directors introduced the dignitaries in attendance, along with the JFCS Board of Directors and staff. Also included in the introductions were members of the Advisory Board: Jean Bixby Smith, Joe Prevratil and Gene Lentzner.

The honorees were presented with a beautiful piece of art, a tzedakah (a Hebrew word for "charity") box, from the Gary Rosenthal collection.

Original article

A Custom Tzedakah Box for Jewish Center of Princeton

Gary recently held a Hiddur Mitzvah event at the Jewish Center of Princeton.  In addition to the event, Gary presented to the center a tzedakah box that was commissioned to kick off the center's 60th anniversary.  A nice article about the event can be read here in the New Jersey Jewish News.

After presenting the box it was brought back to the studio along with glass sheets that the Hiddur Mitzvah participants worked together to make.  These were fired in the kilns and incorporated into the box.  This piece is designed in a way that it incorporates six separate boxes into one - each having a glass plaque showing what the money collected in that box will be used for.  It's a unique design and turned out rather spectacularly as shown by the photos below:

 

Art With A Heart - Hiddur Mitzvah Artcle

A very nice article about the Hiddur Mitzvah Project from BabagaNewz.com:

Art with a Heart

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In a synagogue in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 30 tables are set for Shabbat dinner. Although the meal is simple–a few ounces of chicken, a spoonful of rice, and a leafy vegetable–the promise of free food attracts hundreds of hungry people, including some who are not Jewish. Jerry Tanenbaum, a Jewish communal leader visiting from the United States, has just sat down to eat when he notices something odd: instead of eating, the congregants who prepared and served the meal are milling around, near the back wall.

“Won’t you join us?” he asks with a smile. But the volunteers shake their heads and look away. Surprised, Tanenbaum eyes them more carefully. “They’re too embarrassed to accept a handout,” he suddenly realizes. With 50 percent of the population living below the poverty level and with widespread food shortages, Argentina suffers from a prolonged economic crisis. Unfortunately, the Jewish community has been especially hard hit.

Several weeks before Jerry Tanenbaum enjoyed his Shabbat dinner in Argentina last year, 200 families had crowded around tables in the Talmud Torah of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their weekday meeting, however, was strikingly different from the Shabbat gathering in Buenos Aires. In Minneapolis, dozens of multicolored bits of glass sparkled in the middle of each linen tablecloth; in Buenos Aires, a slice of white meat, brown rice, and a green vegetable lay in the middle of each plate. In Minneapolis, children, parents, and grandparents happily glued their favorite colored glass into small mosaics; in Buenos Aires, children and senior citizens hungrily spooned the last bite of rice into their mouths.

With the exception of Jewish professionals like Jerry Tanenbaum, most American Jews live in ignorance of the calamity that threatens the Jewish community in Argentina. But renowned artist Gary Rosenthal is determined to change that. To aid Argentinean Jews (and other endangered Jewish communities around the world), he developed the Hiddur Mitzvah Project. (Hiddur mitzvah refers to the commandment that encourages Jews to enrich their celebrations by using beautiful ritual items.)

“Our goal is to use art as a catalyst for community service, learning, and spirituality,” says Rosenthal. “I invite Jewish kids and their families to participate in this mitzvah by joining the Hiddur Mitzvah project.”

Rosenthal provides 250 Shabbat dinners once a month for the Jewish community in Argentina, using some of the money raised through the Hiddur Mitzvah Project. Schools that participate purchase mosaic kits from Rosenthal, which contain colorful glass that students and their families glue on a template of a Kiddush cup, dreidel, mezuzah, or Shabbat candleholder. It’s common for students to make two items, Rosenthal says; one to send abroad to strengthen ties with an at-risk Jewish community and one for themselves.

Sally Abrams, a fifth-grader at the Talmud Torah, chose to make Shabbat candleholders. “It was more fun and more cool,” she says, “because you really got to design your own thing.”

When the activity ends, the principal sends the mosaics back to Rosenthal’s studio, where they are fused in kilns and attached to the appropriate ritual item. Finished products are returned to students or shipped directly to Jewish communities overseas to enjoy.

Students at the Minneapolis Talmud Torah “reached out a hand of hope from one continent to another,” says Tanenbaum, who delivered the Talmud Torah’s candlesticks to the Jews in Buenos Aires while on a mission for the World Union of Progressive Judaism.

The Hiddur Mitzvah Project testifies to the power of Gary Rosenthal’s dream. “The project in Minneapolis brought three generations together to study the mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles,” he beams. “At the same time, it brought Shabbat peace to Jews in Buenos Aires, and allowed two communities to share the holiness of Shabbat.”

Mezuzot to Jewish Cubans

A little while back I wrote about an ongoing project to provide mezuzot to every Jewish home in Cuba. Richard Popkin, head of the project, has recently written an article detailing how he got started and what has been accomplished. He mentions the important role that Gary played in supplying the mezuzot that would be given away as part of the project.

"Stanley Cohen was then instrumental in helping Karol and me to obtain many of the 64 mezuzahs we thus brought with us. Others were created for BBCJRP by artist Gary Rosenthal in a project that Karol and I got involved with two years ago for pre-Bar and Bat Mitzvah children in nearby suburban Maryland. Finally, the key piece to solving the logistical hurdles certain to face us was when a long-time Cuban friend (Alfredo) agreed to do all the driving and to help us address the many challenges with which this unique journey was sure to present us. Do not underestimate Alfredo's talents and need for such savvy in order to get successfully from one end of Cuba to the other."

Download a PDF of the full article, The Roads Less Traveled in Cuba: 2500 Kilometers, 64 Mezuzahs and 7000 Advil