This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
If an arts festival can be a lamp of hope, the Jewish Arts Festival is a perfect example.
The event, held Sunday at the I.J. and Jeanne Wagner Jewish Community Center high above the Salt Lake Valley, had an all-inclusive feel. Most of the center's members aren't Jewish. Likewise, many of the artists whose works were displayed in the gymnasium aren't Jews either, according to Michelle Oelsner, community special events coordinator for the JCC.
The festival "brings culture to the city, not just to the Jewish community, but to the [larger] community. It is to enrich the lives of everyone," Oelsner said.
To be sure, the religious lives of Jews were in full view. Two tables at opposite ends of the center's gymnasium were laden with menorahs, candlesticks, muzuzahs, kosher soaps and other objects. In the center of the gym, volunteers handed out fliers describing the charitable work done by the United Jewish Federation of Utah in support of Jewish life in the state and Israel.
"We take care of the community as a whole," said Drora Oren, the federation's community relations manager. Oren was born in Israel and has lived in Utah for 20 years. Her grandparents were killed by the Nazis in 1941. Keeping Jewish culture vibrant in Utah, where the population of Jews is small, is extremely important, she said.
"I'm connected here. My grandparents, everybody [in my family] is Jewish. It's my task to keep traditions alive," Oren said. "It's my task to show people there is hope for the future."
At another table, Chaim Zippel, 13, was selling hats, key chains and a few other items to support his online religious newsletter, the Utah Schmooze. Zippel established the Schmooze when he was 10. The newsletter, full of stories he has written from the Torah or taken from Jewish sites on the Internet, goes out via email once a week to 140 readers.
"It's very important. It's obviously very crucial in my life. It has an impact on everything in my life," Zippel said of the Schmooze.
The festival drew people with varying degrees of devotion to the Jewish faith. For many, it was a chance to buy Jewish objects for their homes that are hard to find elsewhere in Salt Lake City.
"This is kind of a neat time for people to come together. There are not a lot of places to get some of this stuff," said Brendon McAlister, who was shopping with his wife, Barrie, for things they could put in their house at Hanukkah, the eight-day holiday that begins Dec. 20. The McAlisters said they aren't devout Jews but still want their home to live up to their heritage.
"A lot of it is creating a good Jewish home. When we do have kids, it will be important," Brendon McAlister said.
Jackie Shina lives in Framingham, Mass. She and two grandchildren were perusing the items for sale at a table set up by the Kol Ami synagogue in Salt Lake City. Shina was hunting for something that might reflect the traditions of Jews in Utah when she celebrates Hanukkah at home next month.
"It's a celebration of religious freedom," Shina said of Hanukkah.
"It [commemorates] a small group of people who won battles against a large organized army so they could enjoy the freedom that we have here in the U.S. thousands of years later," she said.