Hiddur Mitzvah in the News

This is a little old, but it somehow slipped past my attention until now.

Via The Atlanta Jewish Times Online

11/27/2008 8:32:00 AM

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Participants order Judaica items from the Gary Rosenthal Collection, such as a menorah, tzedakah box or dreidel. They use special Hiddur Mitzvah kits to design their own fused glass patterns. The designs are sent to the studio, where they are fired and added to the modern metal items – each one as unique as its creator. Congregation Beth Shalom members Rene Montaigne and Leslie Lopp design fused glass for artistic Judaica as part of the Hiddur Mitzvah Project. COVER: Building Community Through Art Jody Steinberg Special to the Jewish Times Congregation Beth Shalom members Rene Montaigne and Leslie Lopp designed fused glass for artistic Judaica as part of the Hiddur Mitzvah Project, a popular community project sponsored by the Beth Shalom Sisterhood. The glass will be fused and mounted on metal Judaica items designed by the Gary Rosenthal Collection. "My brother is very hard to buy gifts for," said Montaigne, "but he liked the Tzedakah box I made him at the last Hiddur Mitzvah project so much that I'm making one for the other brother." The Hiddur Mitzvah project has been a popular program at Beth Shalom, because members love coming together to be creative. The items make unique gifts or become special family keepsakes, according to Andrea Rosenbloom, who organized the event with Marcia Moneit. "The Hiddur Mitzvah Fund has worked with tens of thousands of people around the world who use art with mitzvah," explains Judaica artist Gary Rosenthal, who founded Hiddur Mitzvah. "It's a beautiful mitzvah to make Judaica - one of 613 commandments is to make beautiful ritual. People connect with each other and help other communities; the art project becomes a catalyst for mitzvot." Rosenthal founded the Hiddur Mitzvah Foundation about eight years ago as a tool to build community around creating art and turning it into a mitzvah project. Profits from the sales of the kits fund programs around the world. For example, Rosenthal sponsored the first organized Jewish community event in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Residents came together and created over 500 donated menorahs and dreidels in what's been described as "the calm after the storm - a chance to relax among community and create something beautiful to replace so much that was lost." The program was such a success that Hiddur Mitzvah returned in the spring with donated mezuzot, and ultimately helped found the New Orleans Jewish Music Festival. In other Hiddur Mitzvah projects, grandchildren of Holocaust survivors created two items each - one to keep, and one for Hiddur Mitzvah to deliver to survivors in diminishing Jewish communities in Poland and Russia. Hiddur Mitzvah has also sponsored Purim in Uganda and Shabbat dinner in Argentina. A group in Maryland created fused glass art to commemorate Kristallnacht.