The graves of the six children who have died in ICE custody

The conditions for boys, teens in 95 degree heat in tents, and younger boys in a converted Walmart. ICE workers are dragging in additional children.

Panorama of the Immigration Debacle

Creation: The Prequel In order to see the Universe before the creation of the Earth we need to look back in time. The only way to do that is to look out into space at ancient light that is only now visible to humanity after traveling through space for millions of years. Here I have depicted the Kabbalistic "Blueprint for Creation" with images from the some of the oldest energy in the universe as well as other photos of God's cosmic handiwork, mostly from the Hubble Space Telescope. In Jewish mysticism this diagram represents ten different divine aspects (Sefirot) by means of which God bestows blessing on all of Creation. At the top, or even beyond the top sefirah, is the infinite, unknowable God ("Ein Sof") and at the bottom, the created physical world. The higher sefirot are the most removed from our perceptions, the lowest Sefirah represents God's Presence (the Shechinah) as it dwells among us on Earth. Starting at the top, we progress from the oldest light in the universe that human beings have ever perceived, residual microwave energy from the big bang, to galaxies and nebulae. The space telescope photos in the large piece show phenomena that are more distant from us, the miniature piece progresses down to our own planet.

The chaotic state of matter in the beginning. Here the necessary elements of the world, DNA, chlorophyll, light, etc., are present but lacking order and purpose. It corresponds to the un-formed blue marble at the bottom of the Prequel quilt.

Starting at the bottom, this piece shows the Torah's story of Creation combined with some of what science teaches as well. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God hovered over the waters, and God said, "Let there be light," and there was light, and it was evening, and it was morning, Day One. Then God said, "Let there be an expanse of sky to divide between the waters above and the waters below”...But wait! There are proteins and nucleotides forming in the primordial ooze! And it was evening, and it was morning, Day Two. Then God divided between the water and the dry land, and must have created DNA, and single-celled organisms, and as stated in the text, plants, grasses, flowering plants, and trees, each one bearing fruit after its own kind. Pomegranates here are symbolic of Torah, and wheat and grapes a hint of the Sabbath day to come...And it was evening, and it was morning, though the skies are still empty, Day Three. Then God created the lights of the heavens the greater and lesser lights of the sky to mark the days, seasons and years, Day Four. The details of how the heavenly bodies mark time are illustrated in the large seven sided quilt.


The Sun is in the center, and moving outward are the seasons, the months of the Jewish year illustrated by holidays or Torah readings, the months illustrated by the corresponding constellation, the weeks of the year illustrated by the phases of the Moon, labeled with the Torah portions in Hebrew, day and night, the traditional "Psalm for the Day" for each day of the week, and on the binding clocks show the hours and minutes of the days. This piece was inspired by the poetry of the Maariv prayer in the evening service, and ties in with the creation of the heavenly bodies on the fourth day: Maariv Prayer Praised be the Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, whose word brings on the evening. Your wisdom opens heaven''s gates; Your understanding makes the ages pass and the seasons alternate; and Your will controls the stars as they travel in their courses through the skies. You are Creator of day and night, rolling light away before the darkness, and darkness before light; You cause day to pass and bring on the night; You set day and night apart: You are the Lord of Hosts. May the living and eternal God rule us always, to the end of time! Blessed is God, whose word makes evening fall. Genesis Day Four 1:14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day. 


Here are the water and air creatures, Day 5

Wildlife from all over the world appear in a Garden of Eden setting. A dinosaur makes a "cameo" appearance, it is out of time and place, but dinosaurs had to go somewhere. Adam and Eve are embroidered, everything else is appliquéd onto a pieced background.

The heavens and the earth were completed, and all they contain. I made a point of including the Anne Frank asteroid, thanks to Ted Stryk for that photo, it seemed appropriate for a Jewish quilt.

An overview of the Creation Series on exhibit in Lovely Lane United Methodist Church's Brannon Chapel. The seven sided Day 4 piece was displayed on the curved stage to the left, and so is not seen in this photo. The Flood is on the right, and several other pieces are in the foreground including the Towers of Babel and Babble on the right and the Partings of the Seas on the left.

The entire Creation Series (to date) with Day 4: The Creation of Time on the far left

Close up of the center of Day 4: The Creation of Time, depicting the interplay between the heavenly bodies of Space and our perception of Time.

Overview of the Partings of the Seas

The Israelites pass through the parted waters. The women dance with Miriam in the foreground. Moses stands with his staff held up. The stragglers at the back. This includes children, animals, and the elderly, riding on a camel cart. The stragglers are depicted because they will be attacked in the next chapter by Amalek.

Harriet Tubman leads the Underground Railroad. The runaways hide behind vegetation, ride a small boat, and make their way to freedom. Again, they dance in the foreground. In the back is civil war artillery, and Abraham Lincoln on the left.

Rosa Parks wearing her prisoner number, and Martin Luther King Jr. with his Bible lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott for equality and respect. The boycott was a turning point in the struggle for civil rights in the US. The successful boycott lasted a year, during which time people got to work any way they could, many walking many miles ever day. Here they travel on foot, by bicycle, motorcycle, taxi, cars, in the back of pickup trucks, and the empty city buses run with few riders.

The United Farm Workers walk off the fields on strike for better pay and working conditions. The strike was supported by boycott of grapes and lettuce. Cesar Chavez and Delores Clara Fernandez Huerta led the strike. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Protesters and actual signs from the fight against Apartheid. Anti-Apartheid leaders of various races and religions are depicted. In the back of the section, people are divided by walls into "black", "white", and "colored," and the pavement below them is too. As the people are more integrated in the front, so is the ground beneath their feet.

LGBTQ Pride and civil rights. The sign reads, "Love Makes a Family." This is also a clearly diverse crowd, including a person in a wheelchair, military members, and people of all ages and races.

The piece features actual signs from the March, the Margery Stoneman Douglas Students, and Martin Luther King Jr's then 9 year old granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King. Our young people want the freedom to go to school in safety.

The Immigration Debacle depicting family separation, parents separated from their children, children held in cages, teens in tents, families in detention, "deleted children" who may never be reunited with their families, would-be immigrants from "shithole" countries, "nice immigrants from European countries," the converted Walmart, graves of children who have died in ICE custody, Jeff Sessions, Trump with his own immigrant wives and his golden toilet. The Statue of Liberty is aghast in the back, "WTF?" and appears in the foreground with people imprisoned inside her base.

Aerial detail of the Debacle

"The Flood" depicts the loss of life on the left, the tiny ark amid the raging seas left of center, and the rainbow reflected in the water on the right. From the stormy skies lighting shoots down into the days and nights of rain, the sea has sprays of water coming off the surface toward the viewer, the fountains of the deep, sea life, and a touch of sparkle give the effect of the motion of the water. This is not the Noah's ark story for the baby's nursery. The Flood was a terrifying event.

The Israelites are passing through the parted waters. The disoriented fish at the surface of the parted water are swimming vertically. Behind the refugees are images of slavery and the plagues, and the pursuing Pharaoh and his chariots caught in the crashing waters. Moses stands with his staff in the foreground of the parted water on the right, on the left at the base of the column of water are the tablets of the 10 commandments waiting on a mountain top. The people are headed toward the land of (sheep's) milk and honey. Wheat and grapes, necessary to welcome the Sabbath represent freedom, as slaves do not get a day off.

Illustrating the verse, "You have seen how I bore you on wings of eagles and brought you to Myself (Exodus 19) The eagles are carrying crowds of people on their wings.

Ezekiel 37-The Valley of the Dry Bones God showed Ezekiel a vision of the resurrection of these bones reassembling themselves into skeletons, then growing sinews, flesh and skin. Finally God brought the winds from all directions to breathe breath into them, and they came alive. The explanation in the Bible is that the bones represent the people of Israel. Though they appear to be dead, they will live again and return to the Promised Land.

A companion piece tonEzekiel 37: Valley of the Dry Bones Created in honor of a friend’s miraculous recovery after her medical chart said "Sudden cardiac death." She awoke a day and a half into a three-day induced coma on the eve of Hanukah. So the beadwork on the quilt echoes the dreidl motto, "A Great Miracle Happened Here." The other women respond, "Halleluyah" and "Now What?" Clearly, she has more to do in this world. By God's grace, 11 years later my friend is still with us and doing well.

David’s Harp: A Story of Transgression and Teshuvah, Sin and Repentance The story is told in images and beadwork from the upper right, clockwise around the image of David’s Harp, and concluding on the upper left. Bath Sheba is bathing in the center, previously hidden the strings of the harp. Text: 2 Samuel chapter 11

The full story is in the Book of Numbers, chapters 22-24. The ass can see the angel in the road before her, and so she stops. But he prophet, set on cursing the Israelites against God's will, cannot see the angel and beats his loyal ass. Thus God makes a prophet out of the ass, and an ass out of the prophet. The Angel here is transparent, it is to the right of the she-ass’s head. You can tell she is female by her eyelashes and lipstick.

On the left view, a "fabric sketch" study for a more serious future piece, two little people stand in awe on Earth in the lower right corner and contemplate their place in the Universe. "What is Humanity that You are mindful of us, yet You have made us only a little lower than the angels." In the snarky self-aggrandizing version on the right, humanity thinks we and our accomplishments are the pinnacle of creation. The snarky version twists the text of the Psalm.

From the rising of the sun, to its going down, praise the name of the Holy One. A Mizrach is hung on the Eastern wall of the home to indicate which way to face in prayer.

The Tower was built from bottom to top in chronological order. The tower presents the progression of communication from cave painting, to hieroglyphs and ancient alphabets, a blank layer depicts the confounding of languages. The blocks then say "Huh?, What? I don't understand" in numerous languages. Then humans learn one another's languages. In our time, knowing Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin, or English enables one to communicate with half the world. This reversal of the ancient story, in which God desires cultural and linguistic diversity, combined with the internet, gives one power to instigate disharmony or implement disaster aid instantly. How do we use our power?

This is the contemporary Tower of Babble. The story follows the Flood, seen here in the background. The 21st Century tower is populated by diverse people, but all are on their phones, ipods, computers, or pads, with earbuds in their ears, and none are communicating with each other. Not even the father with a child on his lap, both have their own screens. Even the Sefirot, the space photos representing aspects of the Divine, are not communicating with each other and are not in their expected arrangement.

Humanity's outsized view of our place in the Universe and our own deluded grandeur upon shallow self-reflection The text reads: Wow! I behold Your heavens, Handiwork of Your fingers The moon and the stars, You make to shine; What are we Earthlings, That You call us to mind? And the children of Adam That You notice us? Still, you did place us just under the angels… And crowned us with talent and honor Granting dominion over the works of your hands; You placed it all under our feet: Sheep, oxen, chattel together, And also, beasts of the field; Birds of the skies Rivers of fish; Creatures who swim in the deep You placed it all under our feet: Adonai, Adonainu, How awesome is Your name in all the earth! Children of Adam! Children of Eve! How awesome is OUR name in all the earth! Children of Adam! Children of Eve! How awesome IS our name in all the earth?

Belshazzar's Feast: The Handwriting on the Wall

My Golden Retriever, Joy

Two of Maryland's top sheep-herding Bearded Collies

I apologize that I do not know the name of the photographer from which this was done

My son, David

My own Ketubbah, Jewish wedding document. I did the calligraphy in time for the wedding, but was so busy that I could not illuminate it at the time. So four years later I added the paper cut as a anniversary gift. The calligraphy is on a goat-skin parchment.

The holiest of objects, the Tablets inscribed by the finger of God, and the unholy Golden Calf, in which idolatry is fused with materialism, are two things that cannot share the same space. It is like a matter/anti-matter explosion, neither object will survive. The Tablets are shattered, the calf is ground to dust, fed to the idolators, and thus turned into feces. In Exodus 24:9 ff we read: Then Moses went up, with Aaron, Nadab, and Avihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very[b] heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel God did not lay a hand. So they saw God, yet they ate and drank. 12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”... The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. Since the Tablets of the Ten Commandments were written on stone by the finger of God, the Midrash (the rabbis’ “fan fiction” about the bible) concludes they must have been written on sapphire pavers, the same readily available stone and rectangular in shape. At Sinai the barrier between the spiritual realm and the physical dissolves so that Moshe/Moses can receive the Tablets, and they tumble down toward his waiting hands. In the second panel we see Moses in that dissolved time/space between the realms. In an instant he anticipates and receives the Tablets, looks and sees the people worshipping the golden calf (butt end shown here) at the foot of the mountain. In a swirling mix of emotion, Moses shatters the tablets. Thus the violation occurred before the commandment not to make idols or worship other gods was delivered, and the people survived. In contrast to the elders in the quote above, the revelers with the calf not only ate and drank, but engaged in orgiastic dancing, and other inappropriate behavior. It is said that the shattering was Moses’s greatest act, for if he had delivered the Tablets to the people, they would have been inescapably responsible for their behavior. In traditional Jewish texts the Torah is described as written in “black fire on white fire” and when the Tablets were shattered, the letters ascended back to the divine realm leaving Moses only stone. The Tablets pass from the Divine Realm into the physical universe For a brief moment Moshe/Moses has in his hands the holiest objects in the world, written by the finger of God, and at that very moment, he must destroy them.

The tablets, written on two of the pavers below the Throne of Glory, tumbling down toward Moses's waiting hands

On the lower right: Aaron has no plausible explanation for the calf. He says, "I just tossed the gold into the fire, and out came this calf." Moses doesn't even respond to that.