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March 8, 2002
Visions of Yiddishkeit
Peretz stained glass is reflective of secular Judaism.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
After he offered his services as a stained-glass artist to the
new Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, Rob Friedman found
he had a real challenge on his hands. Not only was the space available
for the windows a dauntingly tall, vertical shape, but it also needed
to be filled with images that reflect the secular nature of the
community the building serves.
"It's much easier if you are doing a religious panel,"
said Friedman, who has worked on windows at St. Andrew's-Wesley
United Church and the Catholic Holy Rosary Cathedral. What he came
up with is an innovative mix of words and images reflecting the
varied aspects of secular Judaism.
In all, the four-panelled window comprises 42 square feet of stained
glass, all at a width of 18.5 inches. Friedman had to avoid the
temptation to treat the space like a scroll. Instead, he focused
on an image of nature and replenishment. In the first (bottom) panel,
he created a colorful garden, using Yiddish characters to spell
words, but also stylizing them to appear like flowers and butterflies.
Woven into the windows are the words grunt (earth, or ground),
gortn (garden) and grins (vegetables).
Above the garden, in the second panel, Friedman has depicted wheat,
representing the steppes from which many Ashkenazim originated -
"or Winnipeg," he added, slyly acknowledging the prevalence
of westward migration in Canada. The wheat also symbolizes the ecological
consciousness of Peretz members, he said.
The third panel, above the wheat, introduces other elements that
are central to Jewish culture, including lerer (teacher), geshikhte
(history) and lektsia (lesson), as well as "Yiddishkeit"
and "I.L. Peretz," the writer for whom the organization
is named.
Also included are stylized drama masks, alluding to the importance
of performing arts to Yiddish culture, the neck of a stringed instrument
- a violin or a cello, he said - as well as a bar from the Peretz
centre's school song. The words muszik (music), tants
(dance) and freyd (joy) are woven into the panel as well.
The final panel brings the theme full circle. Representations of
families, from grandparents to children are topped with flowering
harvests, which unifies the garden theme from the first panel. Atop
this is a dove, whose wing forms the word "Shalom."
Though he trained in various media and has worked extensively in
stained glass in the past, this is Friedman's first venture into
glass in several years. More frequently, Friedman can be found at
Not Just Another Music Shop, a store he owns on Granville near Broadway.
Nevertheless, once he committed to doing the Peretz window, he had
a major job on his hands.
"I spent a total of about 500 hours on it over the course of
three months," he said. Once the project was under way, he
followed his knowledge of the craft. It was the period just before
he began that things were really tough.
"The hardest part of it was coming up with the ideas,"
he said.
Of course, making the transition from idea to reality presented
numerous challenges. The perimeter of each piece of glass is bevelled
to fit into the lead outlines that run through the glass. As an
example of the laboriousness of the craft, one panel alone has 2,000
cuts. In addition to the stained glass, there are also some pieces
that are etched. Friedman estimates that a paid artist would have
charged about $500 per square foot for this sort of work, which
suggests the piece might be worth upwards of $20,000. But those
who have seen the window find value of a different kind in it.
"A lot of people were very moved by it," said Friedman.
"A lot of people were surprised that glass could speak that
clearly."
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