In 1967, Rosenstein got a letter
from his uncle that his son died,
so Rosenstein and his young fam-
ily moved back to Philadelphia;
Rosenstein became the foreman of
his uncle’s factory until his uncle’s
death about a decade later, at which
point his cousin had sold the busi-
ness. Rosenstein ran a frame shop in
Northeast Philadelphia for a couple
of years but found it difficult to make
a living.

Around that time, Rita Poley, direc-
tor and curator at the Temple Judea
Museum at Reform Congregation
Keneseth Israel, was the art edu-
cation consultant for the Division
of Community Services at Gratz
College and was looking for Jewish
artists to display their works. She
stumbled across Rosenstein.

“I just took one look at his work,
and I said, ‘I have to exhibit it,’” Poley
said. In 1979, Rosenstein was able to
make his art his career and had
one of his first art shows at La Salle
College, now La Salle University,
where he displayed only three
pieces. He now displays about 40
pieces per show.

Since 2003, he’s worked with busi-
ness partner Barry Magen, who was
drawn to Rosenstein’s unique style.

“It has a modern way of looking at
the Torah and a modern way of look-
ing at the Hebrew alphabet because
his pieces are not black and white
people praying at the wall,” Magen
said. “It’s very bright and creative,
full of color and full of life, and, really,
the big thing is that they’re happy.”
Though his subjects for more than
50 years, Hebrew calligraphy is still
exciting to Rosenstein. His pieces
vary in color and size and recently,
he’s taken old wood blocks with
Hebrew words carved into them,
sent to him by a friend, to give his
pieces a three-dimensional quality.

He was incredulous when asked
if he ever got bored of creating the
style of art.

“The letters? Are you kidding?!” he
said. “They’re my companions.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
THE GOOD LIFE
DECEMBER 15, 2022
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