ii-dooring

Mezuzot add both

style and substance

to the Jewish home.

BY SUSAN KLEINMAN

111

y friend Ida has a lovely
mezuzah on her apartment
door. Her parents have mezu-
zot on the doorways to their
homes. And her grandmother had them,
too — right up there where everyone could
see them as they entered her house. None
of which would be _particularly interesting,
except for the fact that Ida is Catholic, and
her grandmother was born and lived in a
Puerto Rican hill town so small your travel
agent has never heard of it.
My guess? La familia Sanchez was
forcibly converted to Catholicism in Spain
over 500 years ago, and its members have
been posting mezuzot since they lived with
their fellow Israelites back in Canaan.
The commandment to post mezuzot is
as ancient and as central to Judaism as the
Torah itself. And the fact that this mezuzah
has survived the tests of conversion, expul-
sion and migration (even in a family whose
current member didn't exactly jump for joy
when I told her that she is probably the
descendant of Jews) is testament to how
ingrained the custom is in our culture.
While there are some scattered families
like Ida's, who post mezuzot even though
they are unaware of their probable Jewish
background, most of us affix the scrolls to
celebrate and to proclaim to the world
pride in our Jewish heritage.
"People who post mezuzot do so not
only because they believe in the importance
of the objects themselves, but as a means of
identifying themselves to others," says
Laura Kruger, curator of "Living the
Moment," an exhibit of contemporary one-

Clockwise from top left.
Artist Janet Dash combines silver,
fumedglass and gold leaf to create this
beautiful mezuzah. Dash's work is on
exhibit at Hebrew Union College in
New York and Cincinnati.

Artist Ruth Shapiro's sterlin wedding
mezuzah is the perfect gift or a newly-
wed, available through special order at
Tradition! Tradition! in Southfield.

Arizona artist Bobby Harr fuses glass in
vivid colors in his mezuzot collection,
available at Tradition! Tradition in
Southfield.