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Mezuzah’s

In 2007 the synagogue Mikve Israel Emanuel in Curacao celebrated its 275th anniversary. I was one of the artists that was invited to contribute to the exhibition that was organized.

I took some time to study on what I would do and decided to focus on the mezuzah. So I made 5 pendants and a necklace, with references to, among other things, the Snoa and the original text in the mezuzah (Deuteronomium 6: 4 – 9 from the Torah).

Mezuzah ‘Bima’

This mezuzah refers to the bima (pulpit) in the Snoa.

Mezuzah ‘Sjin’

On the tubes of this necklace the letter ‘Sjin’ s processed. In the tubes you find the original text:’Deuteronomium 6: 4 – 9’.

Mezuzah ‘Tzitzit’

The colors of this necklace are derived from the tallit (prayer shawl). The little brushes at the bottom of the tubes are knotted like the tzitzit on the corners of the tallit.

Mezuzah ‘Crackle’

The crackle glaze of this necklace refers to the Jewish History: al lot of trouble, but still going strong.

Mezuzah ‘Gold’

The golden decoration of the tubes refers to the chandeliers is the Snoa.

Mezuzah ‘Love’

For me the most important word from ‘Deuteronomium 6: 4 – 9’ is ‘love’, not only for God, but also for nature and human beings. In the tubes of this collier are small paper rolls on which is handwritten the word ‘love’ in 48 languages. The collier is made in such a way that the little rolls can not be removed without tearing them…

The middle tube contains the languages that are most related to the Jewish religion, as practiced in the Snoa: Hebrew, Yiddish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, and Papiamento.

The collier consists of 21 tubes, which refers to the letter ‘Sjin’, the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Sjin is the first letter of the word ‘sjalom’, which means ‘peace’.

  1. Ukrainian любов
  2. Korean 사랑
  3. Mongolian хайр дурлал
  4. White Russian КАХАНЬНЕ
  5. Chinese 恋
  6. Slovak láska
    Polish lubić
  7. Croatian ljubav
    Kurdish evîn
  8. Indonesian cinta
    Malay kasih sayang
  9. Manx cur graih da
    Pali meltā
    Færoese kœleiki
  10. Swedish kārlek
    Norwegian elske
    Danish kœrlighed
  11. Hebrew אהבה
    Yiddish libe
    Portugese amor
    English love
    Dutch liefde
    Papiamento amor
  12. Italian amore
    German liebe
    Latin amor
    Inuktitut naglikpok
    Greek αγάπη
  13. Finnish rakkaus
    Spanish amor
    French amour
    Latvian mīlestība
  14. Turkish segvi
    Albanian dashuri
    Hungarian szerelem
  15. Rumenian dragoste
    Czech láska
  16. Lithuanian mylėti
    Persian mhr
    Swahili huba
  17. Maltese habb
    Serb ljubav
  18. Thai รัก
    Japanese 愛 , 情
  19. Macedonian љубов
  20. Arabian غرام
  21. Russian любовь

I made this necklace in 2007. At this very moment, 2023, while working on the new website, I get shivers when I notice that Ukrainian and Russian are the two languages in tubes that are the furthest apart… and that the translation of the word ‘love’ looks very similar in both languages.