Call igr aphy
Artis t
PAYS TRIBUTE TO
THE ABCS
OF JUDAISM
Photos by Sasha Rogelberg
Sasha Rogelberg |Staff Writer
Top: Mordechai Rosenstein
with one of his more recent
pieces, which contains recycled
carved blocks of Hebrew letters
Bottom: Mordechai Rosenstein began
scribing a Purim Megillah during his time
at Akiba Hebrew Academy in the 1940s.

8 DECEMBER 15, 2022
THE GOOD LIFE
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



W
hile studying at the
Philadelphia Museum
School of Art, Mordechai
Rosenstein learned fi gure drawing
and color theory, which he calls the
“ABCs” of fi ne art, the fundamental
skills needed to be an artist.

But Rosenstein had a fascination
with his own ABCs, which served
as his fundamentals before he
even stepped into an art studio. For
almost 80 years, Rosenstein has cre-
ated calligraphy art, transforming the
Hebrew alphabet, stretching charac-
ters and bending them into trees or
musical notes and breathing new life
and color into brachot.

In his 88 years, Rosenstein has
created more than 700 pieces, and
he has no plans of stopping soon.

He most recently spent the weekend
of Dec. 1-3 at Ohev Shalom of Bucks
County, where he led community
workshops and classes and created
an art piece with the help of congre-
gants and visitors.

“I sit there and people come
and we let them fi ll in an area,”
Rosenstein said. “They sign the list
of artists, and then when a copy [of
the painting] goes back to the syna-
gogue to memorialize our visit, they
also get a list of the artists.”
At a recent visit to Lombard,
Illinois, Rosenstein created a callig-
raphy piece of Etz Chaim, the Tree
of Life, with the Hebrew letters of
“Etz Chaim” bending, twisting and
elongating to form a tree’s trunk and
branches. Community participants
added additional designs, letters
and leaves to the tree.

Though formally trained as an art-
ist, Rosenstein’s manner of teaching
his calligraphy is much more pro-
letariat. He grabs a piece of printer
paper and clicks a pen that was
resting in his shirt pocket and starts
drawing swoops of letters to create
an uneven, curved rhombus. It’s a
yud, he says, the foundational shape
of all Hebrew letters.

He draws yuds of all shapes and
sizes, which begin to interlock and
form alephs and lameds. In the neg-
ative space within the letters, he
draws symbols and shapes, trans-
forming letters into musical notes on
a staff and basketballs and soccer
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM THE GOOD LIFE
DECEMBER 15, 2022
9