City Charms - Yona Verwer

 Amulets For NYC Buildings

Apotropaic images to invoke protection against attacks

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Temple Talismans

Temple Talismans’ apotropaic images aim to invoke protection for synagogues against attacks. 

Stanton St Shul Amulet: This Manhattan’s downtown synagogue's Star of David window is featured. The Statue of Liberty image is an homage to the immigrants who built this community; the statue symbolizes the freedom of religion in the U.S. Animals and candelabra are inspired by typically Galician Jewish motifs. 

This image has been featured in Bar-Ilan University journal Ars Judaica: “Social Concern and Tikkun Olam in Jewish American Art” - by Professor Matthew Baigell (page 23,24). The painting will be exhibited at the Bernard Heller Museum in NYC in the 2023 exhibition One Nation.

Orach Chaim Blue was created for an Upper East Side synagogue in NYC. It features the building's stained glass window inside of a protective hamsa.
The hamsa was an ancient talismanic method of averting the Evil Eye, or more generally, of providing a "protecting hand" known to draw positive energy, happiness, riches and health. The hamsa (from the Semite root meaning five) includes five digits and symbolizes God's protective hand. It has been interpreted by scholars as a Jewish, Christian, or Islamic amulet. It has been called the hand of Fatima, and the hand of Miriam. In the Jewish tradition we know it as a kabbalistic amulet and as an important symbol in Jewish art.

For the Orchard Street Shul in New Haven, CT, as part of the Cultural Heritage Artists Project, I made the Orchard Hamsa Amulets, prints of amulet-shaped objects with images which I assembled only for the duration of the photo session. These contain in their center the top half of the synagogue's tabernacle: lions, tablets, crown, and bible; the hamsa shape is echoed in the hands bestowing the priestly blessing