PASSOVER: Passover In Bloom

Mallory Serebrin’s hand-painted tulip plate.

Mallory Serebrin’s hand-painted tulip plate.

by Judith Broder Sellner
Special To The Jewish Week

Passover’s various themes include a celebration of spring since, before there was a first seder, there had long been agricultural celebrations of the season. This year the spring theme is in full flower in seder plates, especially those made in Israel.
The recent New York International Gift Fair presented an overwhelming array of spring-themed ritual Passover items. They are available in retail shops and boutiques selling Judaica, including those in Jewish museums and synagogues.
Three Israeli designers, each working independently, came up with similar, yet distinct, seder plates constructed as open flowers.
Michal Atzmon presented two gold-trimmed, 12-inch ceramic plates designed by Jerusalem artist Shulamit Noi. One comes in shades of blue; the other in earthy greens and beiges with hand-painted, small roses. Both

pieces include removable ritual food containers that are passed around during the seder.
A stunning new fused glass plate with open petals comes from Andreas Meyer of northern Israel. Appropriately named “Spring Flower,” the 16-inch piece is hand-painted in vibrant greens, deep red, and gold. English and Hebrew calligraphy painted on the leaves in gold identifies the symbolic foods; similar wording around the dramatic, raised center specifies the three major seder elements: Pesach, maror, and matzah.
Jerusalem’s ever-popular Danny Azoulay has used an open-flower design in two new seder plates. Each one features his signature ivory porcelain, hand-painted with delicate blue, green, and pink arabesques. One has removable bowls for the ritual foods.
At the edge of Mallory Serebrin’s round, ceramic plate you’ll find primitive tulips, hand-painted in bright colors. Inside each one is Hebrew and English calligraphy for a ritual seder food. The Jerusalem artist hand-crafted a companion Miriam Cup with an overall design of multi-colored flowers and the biblical wording “and Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel in her hand; the women went after her with timbrels ... and with dances.”
Based in New York City, Quest Designs has a dramatic plate with six open flowers of polished silver plate over brass sitting on a round, satin-finished, bronze-tone branch. The contemporary piece looks like a wreath and, after Passover, makes a striking wall hanging or a year-round nut dish. A simple, square glass matzah tray has silver-tone leaf designs at the corners.
Philadelphia artist Rylee’s charming, Victorian-style, ceramic seder plate recalls a bygone era. Available in three designs of petite roses, the nostalgic plate sits on a raised, pressed glass, cake stand.
Other Passover themes include the crossing of the Red Sea, which inspired Susan Fullenbaum of metropolitan-Washington D.C.’s Stained Glass Designs. Her new 14 inch-by-10inch rectangular plate features six square food holders and a striking blue and black depiction of the event.
Tel Aviv’s Anat Mayer subtly incorporates the same motif in her new, 12-inch square plate. For the plate and its matching matzah and napkin holders she uses a modern technique called filigrant, a variation of filigree, with Israeli symbols excised from polished stainless steel over blue glass. Mayer’s Miriam Cup features dancing female figures with tambourines, in crystal-embedded stainless steel over blue, green or white frosted glass.
Prolific American artist Gary Rosenthal has added another rung to last year’s tower structure of square copper seder food holders. His new tower accommodates an orange, the feminist Seder plate symbol. Three copper squares branch out from each side of the heart-shaped metal center of his “Wedding” Seder plate.
Beames Designs! turns to the 12 Tribes for this year’s new plates. Round, square, or rectangular, each plate features a radiant assemblage of 12 dichroic glass squares, which represent the tribes’ colors.
Celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary, artist Meir Eshel designed the “Exodus” seder plate for Israel Government Coins and Medals. A sterling silver map of the route traveled by the Israelites from Egypt to Israel has illustrations that include Egyptian soldiers, pyramids and palm trees. Set in a round wooden frame, it has indentations for the symbolic foods. A limited edition of 90, signed and numbered, makes it a magnificent collectible.
Here’s to a sweet, liberating and beautiful Pesach.

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