Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 9, 2020

So she set out to see if she could design her own piece, and fell down a rabbit hole of images and information, falling in love all over again with her heritage. I read about these objects that had always existed in the background, and Id never given them much thought, she says. By this point she was in deep, and decided it might be worth developing a line for other Jews who found themselves in a similar predicament. If theres nowhere to buy Judaica that speaks to us, what happens to those traditions?

She connected with Jamie Wolfond, a product designer who happens to be based in Toronto, and the two set out to come up with a line of designs both functional and cool. Named after the ancient trade route that ran from Damascus to modern-day Cairo and passed through Israel, Via Maris smartly infuses Judaica with a modernist Bauhaus-style aesthetic.

The collection, launching in time for the high holidays, consists of four signature pieces as well as accessories that go with them. There is a cast aluminum menorah whose boxcar silhouette could pass for a butter dish, a gorgeously minimalist steel candle holder, and a brilliantly conceived mezuzah that looks not unlike a high-design vape pen. In addition to a clever workaround that hides the screws that attach the mezuzah to the doorway, the design features a transparent shell in order to reveal the interior scrolls (which are hand made by a female scribe in Jerusalem and sold separately). Not everybody is aware of how breathtakingly beautiful the scrolls are, Schwartz says, and I wanted to expose the calligraphy. The item bound to become a staple of wedding registries is the Trace, a menorah whose playful yet streamlined design looks like a doodle of a menorah. Via Maris also carries low-drip, low-smoke Hanukkah and shabbat candles, in neutral and tastefully bright colors.

While working on their line, Schwartz and Wolfond aimed to create items whose function extend beyond religious rites. The candle holder, for example, is not exclusively suited for the Shabbat ritualSaturday through Thursday nights its simply a handsome candle holder. We were thinking about how each item is a design piece for the home, not something that lives in a closet most of the year, says Schwartz.

Schwartzs childhood taught her Jewish traditions, but also the importance of art and design (her father is an art collector). Shes ended up marrying the two strands of her upbringing, and not just with her product launch. The Via Maris Instagram account is a virtual gallery of photographs of Jewish life, with images of everything from the majestic ruin of The Great Synagogue in Constanta, Romania to a photograph of boys at a bar mitzvah in Miami in 1979 and a Satmar Jew practicing yoga in his fur hat. I collect images that aren't what I call 'Wikipedia Judaism,' " says Schwartz. "In America we think of Ashkenazi culture as Jewish culture, but Jewish culture is so much more varied."

It all comes back to the name of her label, a route that connected myriad people and traditions. I loved the idea of peaceful cooperation sharing cultures, she says. Inclusive, progressive, functionaland chic? Dayenu!

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Via Maris Is Bringing Modern Design to Judaica With a Set of Must-Haves for the Jewish Home - Vogue

Category: Ashkenazi
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