FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM PRESENTS
Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica
A singular collection of newly-designed Jewish ritual objects
by San Francisco–based architect Stanley Saitowitz
November 3, 2011 – October 16, 2012
San Francisco, CA, February 12, 2016 – Award-winning San Francisco-based Stanley
Saitowitz/Natoma Architects are known for a practice that combines the principles of early modern
architecture with the materials, techniques and sensibilities of the 21st century. Raised in a traditional
Jewish family in South Africa, Saitowitz has designed private residences, institutions, public and
commercial spaces, and religious architecture across the globe. Among the many commissions he
has completed during his 30-year career are a number of significant Jewish spaces, including the
Holocaust Memorial in Boston and the critically acclaimed Temple Beth Shalom in San Francisco’s
Richmond District.
Now, Saitowitz brings ancient tradition and contemporary design together in Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica,
an extraordinary display of modern Jewish ritual objects on view at the Contemporary Jewish
Museum November 3, 2011 through October 16, 2012.
“This exhibition presents an opportunity to examine traditional Jewish objects from the point of
view of an accomplished architect who thinks deeply about Jewish space and community,” says
Museum director Connie Wolf. “We are thrilled to share Stanley’s perspectives on Jewish tradition
with the public and welcome him back to the Contemporary Jewish Museum.” In 1984 when the
Museum was founded, Saitowitz won a competition to design and build a sukkah as part of the
Museum’s Invitational exhibition series. (A sukkah is a temporary shelter built to celebrate the
holiday of Sukkot, the autumn harvest festival.)
Rendered in metal and inspired by Saitowitz’s commitment to a modernist aesthetic, the collection is
characterized by the clean lines, rational proportions, and smooth, unembellished surfaces that also
define Saitowitz’s architecture. Most of the 13 objects on view, were prototyped for this exhibition
and have never been seen before. They range from those objects associated with daily ritual, such as
the mezuzah affixed to the doorpost outside one’s home, to more festival-specific objects, such as
the etrog box used during the harvest festival of Sukkot. The one-of-a-kind collection also includes a
kiddush cup (a cup to hold the wine for sanctifying Shabbat), challah cover (a cover for Shabbat
bread), havdalah set (implements to mark the conclusion of Shabbat), Shabbat candlesticks (these
hold the two candles that are lit eighteen minutes before sundown to welcome Shabbat), a menorah
(the eight-pronged candlestick used for Chanukah), seder plate (a plate holding the six items used for
retelling the story of the Exodus at the Passover seder), matzah plate (holds the seventh symbolic
item, the stack of three matzahs, used during the seder), tzedakah box (a charity box), rimonim (the
ends of the staves around which the Torah scroll is wound), netilat yadayim cup (a cup used for
ceremonial hand-washing), and a yad (the pointer used to read the Torah).
For Saitowitz, the ritual objects carry the immense power of a collective Jewish heritage and a
personal family past. He remembers the candlesticks his grandmother carried in her suitcase when
she escaped the pogroms in Riga; the kiddush cup his grandfather brought from Latvia, which his
family used every Friday night in Johannesburg. But when he entered architecture school, he began
to think differently about these familiar objects. “As I became more aware of the Judaic traditions,
and understood better how material carries meanings, I began to see conflicts in the designs of the
objects of my upbringing,” he says. “Many were ornamental and decorative, and conflicted both
with my growing modernist preferences and with my understanding of the laws of Judaic
objecthood, which forbade iconography and equated ornament and imagery with idolatry. So I
began to wonder about other ways to look at these objects and to think about them as ceremonial
instruments that expressed their function, rather than as decorative objects.”
Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica is the result of that life-long thought process. For this project, Saitowitz has
been especially interested in how the Jewish traditions of non-figuration mirror the modern
movement’s insistence on abstraction. “The objects on view here are a synthesis of these
influences,” he says. “The disinterest in ornament and the direct expression of function that
modernism sought has always been inherent in Judaic traditions. The structuring of thought as
theological and Talmudic, minimalist and dialectical, where ideas and concepts govern laws and
actions, is fundamental to modernism. Rigors similar to those of kashrut, which regulate what can
and cannot be eaten, and shatnez, prohibiting the unnatural mixtures of materials, are traditional
counterparts to contemporary modernist thinking.”
“The objects,” says Saitowitz, “Pursue direct and honest expression of their function as divine
instruments.”
Copies of several items will be for sale as well. Saitowitz's mezuzah ($159.00), menorah ($395.00),
and Shabbat candlesticks ($129.00) are available through the Museum’s gift store at 736 Mission St.
in San Francisco during regular Museum hours (see www.thecjm.org for details). Phone orders are
available by calling 415-655-7888.
About Stanley Saitowitz
Stanley Saitowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and received his Bachelor of Architecture
at the University of Witwatersrand in 1974 and his Masters in Architecture at the University of
California, Berkeley in 1977. He is a Professor of Architecture at the University of California,
Berkeley and Principal of Natoma Architects Inc. in San Francisco. He has taught at numerous
schools, including the Elliot Noyes Professor, Harvard University GSD (1991-2), the Bruce Goff
Professor, University of Norman, Oklahoma (1993), UCLA, Rice, SCIARC, Cornell, Syracuse, and
University of Texas at Austin. He has given more than 200 public lectures in the United States and
abroad. His first house was built in 1975, and together with Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects
Inc., has completed numerous buildings and projects. These have been residential, commercial and
institutional. He has designed houses, housing, master plans, offices, museums, libraries, wineries,
synagogues, churches, commercial and residential interiors, memorials, urban landscapes and
promenades. These projects have received national and international recognition. Amongst many
awards, the Transvaal House was declared a National Monument by the Monuments Council in
South Africa in 1997, the New England Holocaust Memorial received the Henry Bacon Medal in
1998, and in 2006 he was a finalist for the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Award given
by Laura Bush at the White House. Three books have been published on the work, and articles have
appeared in many magazines and newspapers. His paintings, drawings and models have been
exhibited in numerous galleries and museums.
Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica has been organized by the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
Koret and Taube Foundations are the lead sponsors of the Contemporary Jewish Museum's
2011/12 exhibition season.
RELATED PROGRAMMING
For Adults
Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica
Opening Luncheon and Lecture
Thursday, Nov 3 | Noon – 1:30 PM
To celebrate this new exhibition, enjoy a luncheon and lecture with architect Stanley Saitowitz as he
shares his process and aesthetic philosophy in creating a modernist line of Jewish ritual objects.
Reservations required. $25 General
About the Contemporary Jewish Museum
With the opening of its new building on June 8, 2008, the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM)
ushered in a new chapter in its twenty-plus year history of engaging audiences and artists in
exploring contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture, history, art, and ideas. The facility, designed
by internationally renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, is a lively center where people of all ages
and backgrounds can gather to experience art, share diverse perspectives, and engage in hands-on
activities. Inspired by the Hebrew phrase “L’Chaim” (To Life), the building is a physical
embodiment of the CJM’s mission to bring together tradition and innovation in an exploration of
the Jewish experience in the 21st century.
Major support for the Contemporary Jewish Museum comes from the Koret and Taube
Foundations, who are the Lead Supporters of the 2010/11 exhibition season. Additional major
support is provided by the Jim Joseph Foundation; The Wallace Foundation; Bernard Osher Jewish
Philanthropic Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund; Bank of
America; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax
Fund; The Hearst Foundations; Terra Foundation for American Art; Walter and Elise Haas Fund;
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; Osterweis Capital Management; The Skirball Foundation;
and Target. The Museum also receives major support from the Jewish Community Federation of
San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties.
For more information about the Contemporary Jewish Museum, visit the Museum’s website
www.thecjm.org.
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Contemporary Jewish Museum
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Public Relations
415.752.2483
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415.655.7834
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415.655.7833
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