03.07.22 Anatevka

The Fiddler, Marc Chagall (1912)
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

In January, I said I was going to post once a month, even if I'm not back in the studio or if I don't have anything jewelry related to write about.

My plan for March had been to put up a fun post about kitchen stuff - but given the turn of world events in the past two weeks - it doesn't seem like the time.  Instead, I want to tell you a little about my not so distant connection to Ukraine.

Anatevka is a fictional town in the Russian Pale (which includes what is now Ukraine) where Jews were "allowed" (read restricted) to reside in Czarist Russia.  

The town and its inhabitants lived in the mind of Shalom Aleichem, a Yiddish storyteller. One of the townspeople was Tevye, the milkman.  Shalom Aleichem's stories about Tevye and his community were written in the late 19th century as Jews (including my great grandparents) fled the Czar's pogroms, and in the mid 20th century, they became the basis for the musical, Fiddler on the Roof.

My great grandparents
Emanuel and Cyril ~ 1930

Like Tevye and Golda - my maternal great grandparents, Emanuel and Cyril - had an arranged marriage.  Unlike Tevye and Golda - who questions whether there is any love in the house - there was no doubt in my great grandparent's case.  As my mother told their story, their relationship was filled with tenderness and mutual respect.  

As the Jews of Anatevka did, Emanuel and Cyril fled Ukraine with their young children and made their way to America.  They settled in Little Rock, Arkansas - where my grandfather, the youngest of five - was born.

Because of them, I am a third generation American, something I do not take for granted.  It is highly likely that I have cousins I do not know in Ukraine - provided they survived the pogroms, the Holocaust, and previous Russian occupations - again fighting for their lives.

My grandfather, Julius, 1965

My grandfather had only a high school education, but he had an incredible work ethic, and truly saw America as a land of opportunity.  He and my grandmother ran a series of successful shoe stores and saw to it that my mother, their only child, did go to college.

It is because of them, I live a life of privilege in America today.  Not because I have done anything special or heroic - but because they did.

I am grateful to them, and to everyone who has made my comfortable, upper middle class life possible. I also realize that I have an obligation, WE ALL DO, to help those who are not yet safe, secure and free.

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King said:   

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. 

This is true at home and abroad - regardless of our ancestry - either we all survive, or none of us do.

Photo Credit: World Central Kitchen Instagram

I am constantly impressed by the work of Chef José Andrés, and have donated directly to his organization World Central Kitchen.  WCK in partnership with chefs throughout eastern Europe are providing thousands of meals every day to Ukrainians.

The New York Times and the Obama Foundation both have lists of vetted organizations providing support for Ukraine.

I urge to do what you can (as no one of us alone can do it all) to promote justice and peace in your home and your community.

Until next time.

08.05.19 What I read on my summer vacation

A couple of posts back, I referenced a book, this time - the post is actually ABOUT the book...

...and if ever a book was written for me, it is Stoned, by Aja Raden.

I am the daughter of a physicist and a mathematician.

I have a Bachelor's degree with a major in government and a minor in religion from the University of Virginia (founded by Thomas Jefferson, the first ambassador to France - relevant, at least to me, because France figures prominently in this book).

I have a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and for more than 30 years I worked in the field of public policy.

I am now a jeweler.

Stoned touches on all of these topics!

Ms. Raden begins her story talking about her mother's jewelry:

I've always most especially loved jewelry. My mother didn't have a jewelry box. She had a jewelry closet. Some of the pieces were real, some of them were fake. It didn't really matter - it all held me in equal thrall; it was all real treasure.

With that passage, I knew I was going to love this book - because I had the very same feelings about my mom's jewelry (and when I wear pieces that belong to her, I still do) that Ms. Raden describes.  But, her book is so much more than just an appeal to pretty or sentimental things - it is a book about the science of metal and gems, of history, politics, economics and romance. It is funny and insightful, and I am grateful to the person in one of my online metalsmithing communities (I wish I could remember who) for recommending it.

Ms. Raden divides the book into three sections - Want, Need, and Take.

Photo credit: Stephen Lang.

Want is about what things are worth - who determines that, and how - and why the value of things changes over time.

One of the examples she uses in Want is wampum beads - similar to those used to purchase Manhattan Island.

Photo credit: Encyclopedia Britannica

Take is about what happens when we want something and can't have it.


In Take she discusses - at great length - the diamond necklace created by King Louis XV for his mistress (but never paid for) that was ultimately used to frame Marie Antoinette and lead to her imprisonment and death.

Photo credit: Mikimoto Pearl Museum

Have is about when we finally get what we (think) we want.

In Have, she writes about Kokichi Mikimoto and his quest for the perfect pearl. This is the Taisho-ren (Boss's pearls) necklace - the largest strand of perfectly cultured pearls ever created. He never sold them - but he always kept them nearby, usually in his pocket.







Stoned is the story of modern human history.  As Ms. Raden puts it The history of the world is the history of desire. This is an examination of that history.

I won't tell you anymore - I don't want to spoil the stories for you - but I do encourage you to get a copy of the book, put up your feet, and enjoy.

Until next time.

10.02.17 The White Rose

Perhaps it was inevitable (given my 30 year career in and around government) that policy and politics would find their way into my jewelry blog - that has certainly been the case over the past few months.  Since January, the world has become a different place - and not (in my humble opinion) for the better. The events of this year have had an impact on me, my blog and my jewelry.

Pearl earrings - Rehoboth Art League

I've written about the importance of art in troubled times, the Women's March, and most recently Charlottesville. When I was finally able to return to the studio (after vacation then hurricane Harvey) it felt like therapy...and I decided that the first piece I made would be for me (in part because if I made mistakes because I was out of practice, it wouldn't matter).

I knew exactly which stone I wanted to use. I won a lovely piece of white Howlite in a raffle, and wanted to create a pendant that would go well with the earrings I bought while I was on vacation.

I started thinking about what to put on the back of the pendant, and decided that a rose bud template I hadn't used yet would be perfect. Not only did the design echo the earrings - but I could wear it as a way to remind myself of the importance of daily resistance in the face of hate and injustice.

You see, during Hilter's rise to power there was a group of student resisters who called themselves the "White Rose Movement". Although it certainly was not their original intent, they sacrificed their lives standing up for for the rights and dignity of others.

As a soldier on the eastern front, Hans Scholl had seen firsthand the mistreatment of Jews working as forced labor for German army, and heard of the deportation of others to concentration camps.

When he returned to Munich as a medical student Hans, along with his sister Sophie and fellow students Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, and Alexander Schmorell, founded the movement to speak out against the rise of the Nazi party.  The students secretly distributed leaflets that encouraged others to object to the war - but were turned in to the Gestapo by a member of the university community - and subsequently executed.

As Americans, we like to think (and say) "it could never happen here" - but in fact - it did, when more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in camps during WWII...and it could happen again.  Proposals to ban Muslims or deport young people who were brought to this country as children sound just a little too much like rounding up people simply because they are different.

History can be ugly and painful - but it is also full of examples of individuals who chose not to look the other way, not to be silent, and to do these things as considerable personal risk.  These good people - ordinary people doing extraordinary things - walk among us every day.  I want to be one of them - and on the days when that is hard, I will wear this necklace.

Until next time.