Edot: Making Wimpels

We finished our unit of study about Ashkenazi Jews yesterday with an art project. Each student decorated a wimpel, one of the oldest forms of Ashkenazi folk art. Originally made only for the sons, wimpels in recent times have become popular again among Jews in the U.S., both for boys and girls. Before beginning the project, I shared two photos with the students - one of a wimpel made by a parent of a former Religious School student of mine, and the second of a wimpel made by Laurie Bellet, Nathan's mother, who teaches art at the Oakland Hebrew Day School. Laurie's wimpel is being "modeled" in the photo by Nathan's and Katie's baby boy, Ze'ev, looking very peaceful wrapped snugly in the binder.

Frank Family Wimpel

Bellet Family Wimpel

The wimpels we created were very simple forms of what could often be very intricately embroidered or painted pieces of art. While the usual length of a wimpel is between 10-15 feet, ours were only 3 feet, obviously necessitating an abbreviation of the usual formula. Each student's Hebrew name (i.e. the name they will be called when it's time for them to come up to the bima to read from the Torah during the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony) and Jewish calendar birth date (easy to figure out from their Gregorian calendar birth dates thanks to Google) were written in Hebrew, while the accepted wimpel formula ("..."May God raise him up to a life of Torah, a successful marriage, and good deeds, Amen Selah") was abbreviated to "Bless him/her with Torah, Marriage, Good Deeds Amen," and was written in English.

Students were advised that traditional decorations for the wimpels were flowers, birds, zodiac signs, tree of life, and Torah scroll. The tools they were given to decorate their wimpels were pencils, fabric markers, and liquid embroidery paints. As always, the results were amazing considering the very little time they had to complete the project.

Hopefully, these wimpels, which will go home with the students during the coming week day session, will serve as a reminder to them of their connection to the family's Jewish community (i.e. Temple Isaiah), and to the Jewish People as a whole. Perhaps they will even inspire some of our Edot families to create true wimpels in preparation for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies coming up in just a year or two.