L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
Kesher Israel Opens Weaving Studio
ARTS SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ILENE CETLIN LIPOW
wasn’t comfortable wearing a
tallit until she wove her own.

Lipow grew up attending
Beth El Suburban, now
Congregation Beth El-Ner
Tamid in Broomall, where
she neither wore a tallit nor
read from the Torah on her
bat mitzvah, as those were
traditions for men. But when
she wove her own tallit, it was
not a man’s garment; it was
hers: a simple cream-colored
shawl with silk and wool, but
the atarah, or neck band, is
adorned with gold embroidery
and dozens of tiny seed pearls.

“When I put on one that
I wove, it was empowering,”
Lipow said. “It doesn’t look like
one of the ones that men tradi-
tionally wear.”
Having learned to knit at
age 6 from her mother, Lipow
has long been a lover of fi ber
arts and wanted to share her
love with fellow congregants at
Kesher Israel Congregation in
West Chester.

“I love making things,”
Lipow said. “If I make
something for you, that’s my
way of showing love.”
Last month, with the help
of the Kesher Israel Sisterhood
and the Kehillah of Chester
County, Lipow began a weaving
studio at the shul, open to the
Greater Philadelphia Jewish
community interested in
making tallit, challah covers or
other fabric Judaica.

Aft er a few years of contem-
plating the idea, Lipow said
now was the right time for her
to start the studio; she was
an attorney since 1985 and
had recently retired. When
the pandemic began, Lipow
reconnected with her love of
fi ber arts — weaving, quilting
and craft ing.

“Being stuck inside for a
year kind of makes you re-eval-
uate what your priorities are,”
Lipow said.

Lipow sent a detailed
proposal of the studio to
Shelly Rappaport, a friend and
director of the Chester County
and Delaware County Kehillot,
LEGAL DIRECTORY
ELDER LAW
AND ESTATE PLANNING
ROBERT A. ROVNER, Esq.

(former State Senator and Asst. Dist. Attorney)
ROVNER, ALLEN, ROVNER,
ZIMMERMAN, SIGMAN &
SCHMIDT TOLL FREE (888) D-I-A-L L-A-W
FREE CONSULTATION Personal
Injury, Disability, Divorces,
Criminal Defense, Workers
Compensation OFFICES: PENNSYLVANIA
and NEW JERSEY
www.dial-law.com 22
AUGUST 5, 2021
Wills Trusts
Powers of Attorney
Living Wills
Probate Estates
Protect assets from
nursing home
LARRY SCOTT AUERBACH, ESQ.

CERTIFIED ELDER LAW ATTORNEY
CPA-PFS, J.D., LL.M.,MBA
1000 Easton Road
Abington, PA 19001
For consultation call
215-517-5566 or
1-877-987-8788 Toll Free
Website: www.Lsauerbach.com
who then applied for a capaci-
ty-building grant for the studio
through the Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia.

According to Rappaport, the
idea of a weaving studio wasn’t
farfetched; there are a small
handful of weaving studios
in the area, including at the
Wilkesboro and Harrisburg
JCCs and at Neve Shalom
Synagogue in Metuchen, New
Jersey. “We’ve had probably 150 to
200 weavers since we began
the program who have come in
and woven tallitot or challah
covers, matzah covers ... And
the stories are just incred-
ible,” said Cory Schneider,
the creator of Neve Shalom’s
“Loom Room,” which opened
fi ve years ago.

She wanted to create an
experience for the weavers
that were “meaningful and
memorable.” According to
Schneider, one woman in her
80s wanted to knit a tallit for
her grandson’s bar mitzvah.

Th ough her grandson was
only 3, the woman insisted
on weaving the tallit, not
knowing if she would live until
her grandson’s bar mitzvah,
but wanting him to have an
heirloom of hers anyway.

Lipow consulted with
Schneider when she was
planning Kesher Israel’s studio,
visiting Neve Shalom’s studio
for inspiration.

Th en, picking up a used
loom from the middle of
Pennsylvania and donating
her own sewing machine to
the cause, Lipow converted
Kesher Israel’s original rabbi’s
study into the weaving studio.

Th e Kesher Israel Sisterhood
funded the yarn for the
weaving projects.

Th e Kesher Israel studio
has been open for less than
a month and has already
attracted community atten-
tion. Th ere are fi ve people on
the studio’s waitlist.

Amy Kamitsky, an active
JEWISH EXPONENT
Kesher Israel member Amy Kaminsky wove a tallit for her son’s bar
mitzvah at Kesher Israel’s new weaving studio. Photo by Ilene Cetlin Lipow
Kesher Israel member and
longtime friend of Lipow, was
the fi rst to complete a project
there: a tallit for her son’s
upcoming bar mitzvah.

“Every time he puts his
tallis on for the rest of his life,
hopefully, he’ll be wrapping
himself up in my handiwork
and my love.” Kaminsky said.

“It sounds so cheesy, but it
warms my heart.”
Kaminsky is not a weaver,
but Lipow sat down with her
and explained the process
to Kaminsky. Aft er almost
20 hours of work, Kaminsky
completed her project, save for
tying the tzitzit, a project she
was saving for her family.

Hoping congregants will be
able to engage in their Judaism
in new ways, Kaminsky is
pushing Kesher Israel to expand
the concept of the weaving
studio and create additional
maker spaces at the synagogue.

“Maybe if services aren’t
for you, and Torah study isn’t
for you, maybe this is one
more way that you can fi nd a
connection that works for you,
your religion,” Kaminsky said.

Lipow is also a proponent
of experiential, or hands-on
Judaism, giving Jews another
opportunity to connect with
their spirituality outside of the
sanctuary and off the bimah.

“I want to give people
the experience of creating
something that they’ll have
for a long time, an heirloom,”
Lipow said. “Th ese are the
things that connect us. I love
making things, and I wanted
to be able to share it with
my community and then the
broader Jewish community.” ●
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM