"Grapevine Arches"

Temple Beth El, Northbrook, IL

For this project with about fifty nineth and tenth graders, I brought my rod bender and about sixty steel rods with a bark-texture finish. I worked with five kids every fifteen minutes to bend the rods. Each group rotated through five positions so that every child got to participate in every aspect of the production.

After they bent their rods, each child received a copper grape leaf to inscribe what Torah, G-d and Israel meant to them. These were wired onto the arches after I created the finished piece using the rods the kids had bent. At the top of each arch is the word "Torah" , "G-d" or "Israel" in Hebrew letters so that as you walk through them and look up, that is what you see.

The Confirmation class walked through them at their ceremony. They are in their permanent place in the new courtyard garden.