Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis is an engrossing and, for the most part, ethnographic study of the power of homemade, crafted objects to create a deeply felt sense of memory, identity, and Jewishness. As described by Jodi Eichler-Levine, these objects underscore the existence of a Judaism that is fluid and at times revolutionary, rooted in a creative freedom that is spiritual even when diverging from the norms of rabbinic Judaism. What matters most, Eichler-Levine asserts, is who created these objects and the personal and/or familial stories with which they are associated. Those that are ritual objects, such as embroidered cloth matzah covers, needlepoint ʿatarot (neckpieces) attached to the top edges of tallitot, and more radical Jewish/pagan amulets, are not primarily saved or digitally shared because they are needed for the fulfilment of a mitzvah or traditional practice. After all, a purchased matzah cover or tallis could be used instead. Yet a crafted object of religious and/or cultural Jewish significance serves a different purpose.
A framed needlepoint rabbi made by her paternal grandmother, which currently sits on a windowsill in her office at Lehigh University, eventually led Eichler-Levine to explore the cultural and religious significance of this needlepoint and other crafted objects primarily made by North American Jewish women. She engaged in three years of fieldwork, researched online crafting communities, interviewed many Jewish crafters, examined crafting manuals and blogs, memoirs, and archival materials, and participated in Jewish crafting workshops and conferences. (She herself is a knitter and stitcher.) Eichler-Levine came to believe that crafted objects are expressions of what she identifies as a “Judaism of feeling and resilience” whose existence and use represent nothing short of “existential act[s] of survival” (13).
When I began reading Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis, I had no idea of the existence of such groups as the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework, of which there are many local chapters; the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh, a craft-driven activist group that arose after the 2018 murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue; and the JudaiQuilt website, along with the digital community that has emerged from it. Yet as someone who has long researched and written about Jewish women's spirituality, I became increasingly fascinated with Eichler-Levine's study of this flourishing, lay-led Jewish movement largely comprised of creative American Jewish women, many, but not all of whom are senior citizens. In her research, Eichler-Levine found an explicit connection that many of these women make between gender and crafting, reframing crafting, which traditionally has been associated with women, from its relegation to a celebration of the everyday. Citing one respondent, Eichler-Levine underscores how crafting can imbue one with power. It can transform women, she writes, from consumers to producers, creators of an artistic generativity that from biblical times through the present has been seen by many Jews as a “holy gift” rather than an acquired skill (30).
Scholars interested in material culture, especially those working on expressions of Jewish identity grounded in memory and feelings rather than in study and the mastery of religious texts, will find this book to be particularly fascinating, as will those whose research is in gender studies, related to Judaism or to issues of gender more generally. Undoubtedly, Jewish crafters will also want to read this book. Indeed, I would encourage them to do so, for Eichler-Levine takes a topic (crafting) that some might dismiss as trivial and therefore not worthy of serious study, and reveals, through solid interdisciplinary research, its considerable significance in creating for a good number of North American Jews, especially women, a meaningful and ever-changing sense of Jewish self-identity.
One important insight that Eichler-Levine offers is that the crafters she met “fill up the voids of existence with the comfort of things.” Making things has helped many crafters deal with infertility, illness (as it did Eichler-Levine), and loss. For those who have the time and financial means to create piles of needlepoint pillows, quilted challah covers, and embroidered tallitot, one apparently can never have enough of such objects, for “by taking up space, by bringing too much to the table, the makers of these objects are perennially crafting a new Judaism, one that makes room for multiple colorful emanations of selfhood” (32–33). While I appreciate the significance of creating and owning objects, such as those described in Eichler-Levine's book, I wonder whether objects that are not homemade can hold the same sort of meaning. Since I am not a crafter (although when I was in graduate school, I did make a few needlepoint pillows), I may never know the answer to this question. Yet the Shabbat candlesticks I use, brought over to the United States long ago by my paternal great grandmother; my father's ring that I've worn for over fifty years; and the photos of family and friends in the albums that I've carefully preserved and enjoy looking at, very much evoke memories and feelings that continue to shape my cultural and religious sense of identity. One may not share Eichler-Levine's belief that the musings on GefilteQuilt are “a Jewish text as worthy of scholarly study as a tractate of Talmud” (73) to appreciate the value of such musings to those interested in postdenominational Judaism in the United States and new models of community and friendship.
The book's thematic chapters at times lead to repetitiveness, and I found the interweaving of personal stories of professionally trained Jewish artists who have created crafts, including those commemorating the Holocaust, with stories of Jewish crafters who are not artists yet see themselves as part of a larger crafting community, to be confusing. Nonetheless, this work is an important contribution to our understanding of Judaism and Jewishness in twentieth- and twenty-first-century America. Eichler-Levine's attention to issues of gender, economic class, and race make this a particularly valuable study.
