The dog ate my shofar

Why synagogue gift shops?

Sometimes the answer is as simple as a mischievous pet, a tasty ram's horn and a distraught mother in search of a replacement.

Phyllis Weinstein laughs as she recalls the story of the chewed shofar, pointing out that there are many reasons why congregations house Judaica shops and why area congregants and others frequent them.

Weinstein, who oversees the Har Zion Sisterhood Judaica Shop, says that having Jewish items in the home is a beautiful and meaningful way to preserve tradition.

"It's important to have a site (to provide) the Jewish objects that are our heritage," she says from the Har Zion shop, tucked into a tiny space at the synagogue's Thunderbird Road complex in Scottsdale. It's jam-packed with menorahs and kiddush cups and seder plates, along with an impressive array of gift items.

Rabbi Zalman Levertov, who runs the Chabad shop at its Lincoln Drive location, explains that there are essential items that every Jewish home should have - books, Sabbath and holiday ritual articles, a mezuzah, a tzedakah box - and there is an obligation to make them special.

"When it comes to a mitzvah, we should spend more than to just get by," he says, citing a passage in the morning prayers that exhorts us to glorify God. "We should buy something nice, spend a few extra dollars."

The Chabad shop seeks to satisfy that obligation - and a variety of budgets and tastes - with a broad range of price and design, ranging from the very traditional to the contemporary.

Special but affordable seems to be the rule - and convenient.

Helene Rashkow, who runs the two-year-old Hakol at Temple Kol Ami, explains she and Rabbi Emeritus B. Charles Herring were inspired to start the shop - whose Hebrew name means "everything" - in order to provide one-stop shopping for busy families.

"We didn't want people to have to go outside to purchase Judaica," says Rashkow, whose family has belonged to the Scottsdale congregation for nine years. The shop draws a preponderance of Hebrew school and preschool parents among its shoppers. "We wanted convenience."

She has created a jewel box of a store, from its hand-painted harlequin floor cover in bright fuchsia and green, to its antique wooden dresser artfully displaying a dazzling array of silver and beaded jewelry, glass dreidels, exquisite jade and silver magnifiers and other tempting items.

Rashkow, a retailer who owns the Lola Boutique at Sachi Salon in Scottsdale, knows how to merchandise - and sell.

The congregational shops - at last count there were nine serving the Valley, from Beth Emeth Congregation in Sun City West to Temple Beth Sholom in Chandler and everywhere in between - are moneymakers for the congregations. All of them donate proceeds directly to the synagogues to support ongoing programs and services.

"People feel they can support the synagogue if they buy here," says Weinstein, who has run the Har Zion enterprise for the past 10 years. She estimates that the shop does about $25,000 a year in business, providing about $10,000 to synagogue coffers. A credit card machine added to the shop last Chanukah has substantially boosted sales, she notes.

And besides supporting local Jewish life, the shops see supporting Israel as an important part of their mission.

Barbara Mark Dreyfuss, who last summer took over the Temple Chai Judaica Shop with co-chairwoman Toni Smeltzer, deals directly with more than two dozen Israeli artists and designers, contacts made from her work over the past several years on the communitywide Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration and frequent trips to Israel to visit family. A trip for a grandson's bar mitzvah this month will also include time for buying.

"Buy direct, no shipping," gloats Dreyfuss, who will return with bags chock full of items for the shop.

She ticks off the Israeli sources that provide her wares: Vashti Judaica for beautiful matzo covers, charoset and saltwater bowls; Alef to Tav for exquisite raw silk tallit and kippot by Emanuel; Idit for silver and gold jewelry.

The Temple Chai shop, located in the reception area of the temple's office complex, has been in existence for most of the congregation's life. But Dreyfuss is seeking to refocus its market niche, phasing out "gift" items and stocking more Judaica.

The shop is open four days a week with varying hours, and Dreyfuss estimates that she spends some 40-50 hours there.

"Buy, unpack, label, display, organize," Dreyfuss details what has to be a labor of love.

Dreyfuss is assisted by a cadre of volunteers, including Benita Sonabend and Ellen Rosenbaum, who oversee a booming custom-invitation business. Temple staff takes care of the accounting.
Rashkow, too, credits other temple members with pitching in. She does all the buying and merchandising, Amy Bessen schedules sales staff, Kim Hart takes care of inventory and the temple office does the accounting. Weinstein is almost a one-woman show with volunteer salespeople who spell her.

"Buying, ordering, the whole shebang," says Weinstein, a mother of three married daughters and eight grandchildren, who will be honored for her service to the congregation at the Sisterhood's Torah Fund Luncheon on Sunday, Feb. 20.

Weinstein says she goes to the annual Los Angeles gift show, which has a large selection of Judaica, and then does the remainder of her buying from catalogues and the occasional vendor who will stop by. Har Zion, like most of the shops, will also do special orders, tracking down items customers may have seen elsewhere.

The shops also showcase local artists such as Maria Weisbrod of Keepsake Kipot and Bonnie Miller, who fashions one-of-a-kind beaded bracelets.

Miller's bracelets, many adorned with tiny Torahs, Stars of David and mezuzot, are popular bat mitzvah gifts. They are carried at Hakol.

Gifts for weddings, b'nai mitzvah and other simchas are a large part of the Judaica shops' business. Levertov, who says he opened the Chabad store primarily to make Jewish books available to the local community, says he suggests an addition to a family's Jewish library as an appropriate gift.

"I push books," he says, taking time to walk a visitor through the store's extensive offerings, pointing out its selection of books geared to children's Torah study and pulling out a boxed set of the Shulchan Aruch, the Jewish code of law, and adding that to his list of essential items to have in a Jewish home.

Levertov, who does all the buying, also carries a number of gift items, everything ranging from a baby's rattle with the words "shana maidele" (pretty girl) to a children's alarm clock that plays the modeh ani, morning prayer, to awaken little sleepyheads. Glass cabinets in the large, attractive space house beautiful sterling silver Judaica, ranging from $55 kiddush cups to beautifully detailed $2,000 wine servers. His newest item is a traveling tallit and tefillin case made of rugged canvas and retailing for $60.

At the Scottsdale Chabad store located at Scottsdale Kosher Market, where shoppers can buy gifts, shop for grocery items, and have lunch all under the same roof, Brandon Budd says both locals and Valley visitors are impressed with the gift selection.

"We have anything from collectable dreidels to menorahs and mezuzahs, but not just the plain Jane stuff," says the youthful retailer, who hails from Toronto.

The shop also does kosher gift baskets for shivahs and simchas, and a gift and bridal registry are in the offing.

Rashkow at Kol Ami says her best-selling item is the car mezuzah that retails for $5.

"We order, reorder, reorder," she says of the popular gift for new drivers (and old ones).

At Har Zion, Weinstein carries lots of hostess gifts in addition to more traditional ritual items.

"Things that are not typically Judaica but very Jewish," she says, showing off bagel platters and knife spreaders and mah jong sets.

And what about that sorry dog and shofar?

Weinstein now carries a selection of dog items, including a kosher dog bone, and a full complement of shofars.

Contact the writer here

Local Judaica shops

Beth Emeth Congregation of Sun Cities and West Valley
13702 W. Meeker Blvd.
Sun City West
623-584-7210

Chabad Religious Articles, Gifts, Books
2110 E. Lincoln Drive
Phoenix
602-944-2753

Har Zion Sisterhood Judaic Shop
6140 E. Thunderbird Road Scottsdale
480-991-0720 or Phyllis Weinstein, 602-494-1203

Jewish Quarter of Scottsdale
10701 N. Scottsdale Road
480-905-5202

Scottsdale Kosher Market's Gift Shop
10211 N. Scottsdale Road
480-315-8333

Gallery Judaica of the Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum at Temple Beth Israel
10460 N. 56th St.
Scottsdale
480-951-0323, ext. 146

Temple Beth Shalom and Jewish Community Center of the Northwest Valley
12202 N. 101st Ave.
Sun City
623-977-3240

Temple Beth Sholom
3400 N. Dobson Road
Chandler
480-897-3636

Temple Chai Judaica Shop
4645 E. Marilyn Road
Phoenix
602-971-1234, ext. 212

Temple Emanuel
5801 S. Rural Road
Tempe
480-838-1414

Temple Kol Ami Hakol Gift Shop
15064 N. 64th St.
Scottsdale
480-951-9660

Temple Solel Atrium Judaica Shop
6805 E. McDonald Drive Paradise Valley
480-991-7414

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The dog ate my shofar

Judaica shops fill a multitude of needs

VICKI CABOT Contributing Editor

VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor