Artisans of Israel: Transcending Tradition

Description

In Artisans of Israel the author Lynn Holstein portrays forty artisans from five trades (jewellery and metal design, ceramic and glass, textiles, paper, and wood) who honour above all the continual pursuit for innovation. The forty artists - including Jews, Muslims and Christians - tell their stories and show in five different trades how emancipation can be promoted through creativity. Working with one's hands stands unfailingly at the centre of this reflection. From the hybrid of cultural and religious backgrounds emerges a unique compilation from the fields of metalwork and jewellery, ceramics, textiles, paper and wood, one that portrays a sensitive and inspiring portrait of Israel and its inhabitants.

After earning an M.A. with distinction in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, where she focused on Islamic art and architecture, Lynn Holstein served in administrative posts in a number of educational and cultural institutions. They include the Jewish Museum in New York, The New York Public Library, Harvard University, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. From 2000-2004, she lived in Jerusalem, directing Israeli industrialist Stef Wertheimer's New Marshall Plan for the Middle East initiative. For the past decade, she has shared both her work and her home life with Mr. Wertheimer in an effort to promote his various programs. All are aimed at bringing peace to the region by educating skilled professionals, developing industrial parks, and creating jobs for all sectors of Israeli society. In addition to this book, she is writing another that examines the challenges of the rapidly changing Bedouin community in Israel's Negev region. She also adapted Mr. Wertheimer's very successful autobiography (originally published in Hebrew) for an international English readership. Entitled The Habit of Labor, Overlook Press released it in November 2015.