Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation

Sacred Objects

AARC’s new Yahrzeit Candle

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This interview/article appeared in the January 2026 Washtenaw Jewish News. See page 1 and page 6 at this link: https://washtenawjewishnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Jan-2026.pdf

The Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation (AARC) is fortunate to have a special collection of ritual objects created by its talented congregants. At the high holidays last fall, Idelle Hammond-Sass, an artist, jewelry designer and metalsmith, presented the congregation with yet another sacred object:  a beautiful yartzeit candle holder.   A yahrzeit candle is a long-burning candle lit to remember a loved one on the anniversary of their death.

Emily E (EE): Idelle, tell us about how the idea came about for you to create a yahrzeit candle holder for the AARC.

Idelle: The idea really originated with Rav Gabrielle. She invited me to create it for the ritual of lighting a community yahrzeit candle on Erev Yom Kippur.  She saw this an opportunity for an artisan in the community to contribute to hiddur mitzvah – the elevating and beautifying of a mitzvah or cherished ritual – and to embody the DIY and collaborative spirit that defines our Reconstructionist community.

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EE: Tell us about your research and creative process.

Idelle: I use a metalsmithing technique called Foldforming. It is a process that can transform metal with hammering, folding and unfolding, repeating the process to create amazing complex forms.  I also used this technique to create the Ner Tamid (eternal light) I made for the AARC Torah Ark.

Part of experimenting with fold forms means you can fold paper to plan a fold or create variations. Some of these can be very interesting in their own right.

I was doing a little research on paper folds and found a folded seven-point star in a book which I knew could be modified to be a six-pointed star. Using a piece of bristol board I measured it out, adapting it from the original seven-pointed form.  It looked like two triangles attached at the long edge. I then measured one-inch segments and folded them back and forth, like an accordion.  I added an additional inch to overlap in the front. This determined how much metal I would use.

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EE: What were the materials and did you have any challenges in creating the candle holder?

Idelle: I first made a copper model to see how the glass candle holder would fit. It needed to be longer to accommodate the thickness of the metal and the glass insert. First, I priced it in sterling silver which turned out to be fairly expensive, so I began to look for other alternatives.  I ultimately decided to use NuGold, a brass alloy often called Jewelers Brass. I wanted the interior to have a golden glow and reflect the candle.

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EE:  At Kol Nidre Services in October 2025, you dedicated this yahrzeit candle holder to an AARC founder and longtime friend Evelyn Neuhaus, z”l, who passed away in February 2025.   Tell us about the connection you felt between this special object and Evelyn.

Idelle: Evelyn and I met in a Hebrew class and she was an important friend over many years. I was unable to attend her funeral and honor her so this was something I wanted to do.  She had many close friends in the AARC congregation and in the community and made spirituality and Jewish learning a priority in her life. The Yahrzeit candle radiates the inner light of the person we are remembering; this is what the golden glow represents within the object.

Evelyn Neuhaus, z”l,

Evelyn Neuhaus, z”l

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EE:  How do you see the yahrzeit candle holder being used by the congregation?

Idelle: I imagine it will be available to use especially at times of remembrance such as Yizkor, but will be used at other services as the congregation and Rabbi decide.

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EE: What else would you like to share about this gift to the congregation?

Idelle: I’ve made other ritual objects for our AARC congregation including our Yad (Torah Pointer), a Crown for a Megillah holder made by Allen Haber and the Ner Tamid (eternal light) called “Forest Dawn” which sits atop the Torah Ark.  All of these are specific to our congregation as they were intentionally made for AARC. I don’t use the Star of David often, although I did use it on the end of the Yad which was a triangle and offered that very naturally.  In this Yahrzeit holder, the Star of David becomes the space to hold the memorial candle. I see it as the whole community holding the space for the person(s) we are remembering, embracing them with love and respect for who they were to us as a community.

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To learn more about Idelle’s artwork, see her website.

To see photos of the AARC’s beautiful ritual objects visit https://aarecon.org/sacred-objects/.

Re-Rolling the Torah Together

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Words by Keith Kurz

The Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation met with the Hebrew Day School’s third grade.

In preparation for Rosh Hashanah the Torah needed to be re-rolled from nearly the end to nearly the beginning. Deb Kraus led the third grade class in a prayer for doing the mitzvah.

The students asked good questions and sang songs during the re-rolling. Intermittently Deb stopped the rolling of the Torah to point out many items, including the beginning of each book, the 10 Commandments, the Shima and the place where Avram changed his name to Avraham and Sarai to Sarah. Noah learned to re-roll the Torah and perform hagbah.The Hebrew Day School hopes to have more activities with AARC.

A Little Stroll Down Memory Lane!

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A few editions of the Havurah’s original newsletter, ‘The Grapevine.’

The cover of the May 2012 Grapevine

Is everyone ready for a trip down memory lane? Aura Ahuvia has very generously donated her archive of the Grapevine newsletter from 2000-2013. Thank you Aura! We have uploaded a few notable ones here for you to enjoy. Feel free to share memories in the comments below.

Grapevine from October 2012- AARC discusses name change and hiring a Rabbi!Download
Grapevine from October 2005- The Hav has its first Friday Night Childrens Service!Download
Grapevine from October 2001- The Hav buys our Torah from EHNTJCDownload

If you enjoyed this and would like to check out the rest of the archive, Margo Schlanger has uploaded it here! You will need to log into the member section of the website to access the archive. If you need help with this, let me know!

Children in the Open Tent

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by Clare Kinberg, Beit Sefer director

Rosh Hashanah Children’s Service 2019, photo by Nancy Meadow

For the Rosh Hashanah Children’s Service, I transformed our Community Chuppah into Abraham and Sarah’s tent, which was said to be open on all four sides in order to welcome guests. The theme for this year’s Beit Sefer is “Welcome.” We are learning to be welcoming of ourselves, new friends, new community members and immigrants to our country. Based on several Midrashim and a story told by Nissan Mindel on chabad.org, I wrote a story for our families:

Bruchim habaim, welcome to the tent of Abraham and Sarah in Beersheva. We are in the desert and our ancestors Abraham and Sarah have a beautiful garden around their tent, which is open on all four sides, just like this chuppa we sit under. This is a story about their open tent.

Abraham and Sarah were not born in Beersheva; they came from far away. They went on a long round-a-bout journey, walking thousands of miles to get where they finally built their tent and garden. While they were on their journey, some of the people they met were very kind and welcoming, offering them water and food and a place to rest.  Sometimes they tried to pass through places where people chased them away shouting “get away,” we don’t want you here.

When Sarah and Abraham built their own tent, they wanted it to be open on all sides to let people who were passing by know that they were welcome. Sarah and Abraham would sit in their tent and listen for travelers. They would welcome them into the tent and feed them.

Out in the garden surrounding the tent, there were two tall date palm trees. The leaves at the top of the trees could see and hear from many miles away. So the trees were the first ones who could see caravans of travelers when they were still far away. And the caravans could see the trees and know there was a place to rest from the hot desert sun.

The trees kept watch for Sarah and Abraham, and when the trees saw a caravan of people who seemed like they came from far away, people who dressed differently and spoke a different language, they would rustle their leaves with a special swishing sound.

When Abraham and Sarah heard the sound of the date palm trees swishing in the special way, they knew they had to do more than wait for the travelers to come to the tent. They knew the travelers might wonder if they would be welcome. So Sarah and Abraham would prepare food and water and they would run out of the tent to greet the strangers and offer them water, food, and good company.

AARC’s Megillah Ark

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The Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation is proud to present one of our hand-crafted sacred objects, a Megillah Ark created by Alan Haber, with components crafted by Idelle Hammond-Sass. The Ark is a beautiful piece of artistry specifically designed to shelter a hand-illustrated scroll of the Book of Esther or Megillat Esther. For more on the Scroll of Esther acquired in 2016, see Barbara Boyk Rust’s blog post. Please enjoy this description of the symbolic elements of Ark in the artist’s own words:

I made it like a city within which to live and be safe, with 6 walls to hold the story. Each of the wall boards has two tenons like the boards of the tabernacle. In the front are the city gates, Boaz and Joachim. In the back is a dark post, ready also to serve as gallows. The wall boards on each side of the gate have the smile of Vashti, in the grain, through which the story unrolls.

The story scroll is held tied between 2 pieces of rosewood attached to a piece of white holly wood, which serves as the handle to draw the story out between the city gates, though the smile of Vashti. The gate is closed, with the story inside, and latched  by a piece of ebony wood, tied with a blue thread. When the gate is unlatched, the ebony latch bolt is inserted and held at the top of the gallows post and the blue thread serves as the rope and noose. The crown of Esther is on top of the central post holding the scroll, and is turned to unroll the story, and turned back to re-roll. Mordecai sits at the base of the city gate and aligns Esther when the story is returned to within the city and the latch retied. The city walls and earth below and roof above are all of cherry wood … surely a favorite of Esther, without ointments and oils.

– Alan Haber, 2019

According to Idelle Hammond-Sass, the scroll was designed by an Israeli woman artist she saw at the Janice Charach Epstein Gallery. Says Idelle:

Barbara Boyk-Rust and I purchased it, hoping to have a housing created for it. It is color-offset, richly decorated and signed.
We arranged to collaborate with Alan and I made a brass Crown etched with the Hebrew for Megillat Esther, which fits the fulcrum of the turning for the scroll. It has designs pulled from the scroll itself. Barbara and I also visited the Megillah container Alan made for Beth Israel and helped to fund the project.

Idelle Hammond-Sass, 2019

Creativity on Display in Community Chuppah

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The Community Chuppah

The creativity and collaborative nature of our Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation (AARC) were on display at the joyous installation ceremony for Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner on December 15, 2018.

A beautiful Chuppah was decorated with thirty colorful cloth squares created by our community, forming the artistic centerpiece of the event.

Much appreciation goes to the Chuppah project coordinators:

  • Sarai Shoup – Installation Committee chair
  • Marcy Epstein and Eileen Dzik – selected and purchased chuppah materials, including the deep blue background for the squares and reverse side fabric reminiscent of a Talit.
  • Marcy Epstein – hosted several workshops at her home to help people with ideas. Techniques included crochet, embroidery, applique, fabric painting, needlepoint, attaching beads and stones, and more.
  • Kathy Kopald – cut the squares and prepared for mailing
  • Sherry and Steve Lessens – mailed out the squares
  • Karyn Schoem – sewed together the entire chuppah
  • Seth Kopald and Alan Haber – Seth made the poles from bamboo from Alan Haber’s yard

    • We are creating a record detailing who made each square in the Chuppah, along with their comments about the process and its meaning. If you contributed a Chuppah square, please add your information to this Google Doc by January 31, 2019.

    Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner at her installation, under our new community-created chuppah, photo by Eric Bramson

    The Nancy Denenberg Fund paid for the chuppah materials, and Nancy’s sister contributed a square in her memory.  Nancy, who passed away in 2006, was one of the founders of the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Havurah, which later became the AARC. The community Chuppah commemorates Nancy’s interest in the arts and in building a nurturing community.

    Rabbi Ora’s installation also featured music performed by congregation members, a Shabbat ceremony with thought-provoking dvars by Rabbi Ora and our guest speaker Rabbi Shelley Goldman.

    A delicious meal was catered by El Harissa and coordinated by Stacy Weinberg Dieve and Kathy Kopald. Deborah Fisch, Lori Lichtman, Bob Lichtman, Adrianne Neff and Nancy Meadow contributed challahs and amazing desserts.

    Our talented band added to the beauty of Rabbi Ora’s installation, photo by Eric Bramson

    We are looking forward to seeing how the Community Chuppah is enjoyed in the future as our congregation celebrates significant events and milestones. For more about the congregation’s ritual art pieces, see the blogs on the Torah Table, Torah Table Tapestry, Ner Tamid, and Yad. Additional blogs on the AARC’s other hand-crafted ritual objects are coming in 2019.

    Beeswax Candles by Karyn Schoem

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    By Sarai Brachman Shoup, AARC Community Chuppah project coordinator.

    Karyn Schoem is a Beth Israel member with quilting experience who has volunteered to put our community chuppah together. An artist, she also makes beeswax Shabbat candles – Or Haneshama (“Light of the Soul”). I bought some and thought they were really nice. They also smell great!

    The candles are 100% beeswax from Lesser Farms in Dexter. They burn cleanly with no dripping and have an approximate burn time of 3 hours. No toxins are emitted while burning. She melts the wax in her kosher kitchen or in a solar box. She uses silicone molds. The wicks are 100% cotton and lead-free.

    Since Karyn is contributing to our community through her volunteer work, I thought it might be nice to let people in the congregation know about her candles (It is OK with her).  They are $5 for a pair and $14 for a pack of six. She can be reached at karynschoem@gmail.com.

    Karyn Schoem working on the AARC Community Chuppah.