seder | Amy Reichert Judaica

Tu B’Shevat Plate

Admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 22:05:02 +0000

This plate was created for the festival of Tu b’shevat, which inspires us to draw close connections between human beings, trees, and the land. This slice of an elm tree tells a story of natural and human ecologies, of local history inscribed in its growth rings. Its cross-sectional grain is sculpted in three dimensions to echo a topographic map, complete with a river of gold leaf. Hovering above the landscape, brass and glass stands can display small portions of the fruits and grains central to this holiday. This can also be used as a Passover seder plate.

Elm wood, gold leaf, brass, + glass.16” x 22”
Created for 50th anniversary commission
Price varies. Made to order, lead time about 8 weeks.
By commission only.

Seder Plate I

Admin — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 22:07:07 +0000

The abstract design of this seder plate echoes the collage-like quality of the Passover haggadah, an anthology of texts from Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and folksong. This seder plate is a symbolic landscape. Ordinary plates, when wiped clean, leave no hint of their previous use. Here, the plate bears traces of what has been there, and points toward what will be there again. It is a repository of memory, whose mysterious, fossil-like impressions provoke interpretation and elaboration.

Sterling silver + mahogany, 12” x 12” x 3”
Limited edition of 10
Winner, second place, Philip and Sylvia Spertus Judaica Prize
Permanent Collection of The Jewish Museum, NYC + The Yale University Art Gallery

Miriam’s Cup I

Admin — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 22:12:27 +0000

This cup is a restless vessel, like Miriam’s ancient well dancing with the people Israel at the Red Sea. It is heard as well as seen, the cymbals ornamenting the bowl’s perimeter respond to the slightest vibration of the table. On the seder table, it echoes the sounds of freedom—the wind rustling through grasses, the murmuring of exiles, a joyous song with a tambourine.

Sterling silver, hand hammered, 6” h x 8” dia
Created for “Drawing From the Source” at the HUC Petrie Gallery, NYC
Permanent Collection of The Jewish Museum, NYC
$10,000. Made to order, lead time about 6 weeks.
By commission only.

Seder Plate II

Admin — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 21:07:41 +0000

If the Passover seder is a communal drama, the seder plate is its main stage prop. Here, the central theme of Pesach–emerging from slavery into freedom–is expressed by the separation of foods representing those two states. Haroset, maror, and hazeret are 3 ritual foods meant to recall our enslavement to the Egyptians. The shank bone, egg, and the karpas remind us of our status as a free people.
The foods of slavery rest on a lower level, set into a heavy limestone slab. In stark contrast, the foods of freedom are elevated on a shimmering brass disc, evoking the higher spiritual plane of the Israelites in the desert. The element that simultaneously separates and connects these two conditions is water. Here, a channel of salt water on the seder plate points to the pivotal role of the Red Sea in the Exodus story.

Jerusalem Gold limestone + hand-hammered brass, 12” x 20” x 4”
Limited edition of 36
Created for “New Works/Old Story” at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
$3,800. Available at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, The Jewish Museum, NY, and this website.