By Rabbi Paul Kipnes

Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center (PJTC) members gathered last week to create new wall-hangings for their new community sukkah. With their synagogue and buildings and many ritual items destroyed in last year’s Eaton Fire, this year they made colorful banners with support from Paper Midrash and Congregation Or Ami.

PJTC’s religious school worked with Isaac and Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik of Paper Midrash on four banners inspired by the Four Species of Sukkot, made entirely from the community’s fingerprints.

The project also marked a meaningful reunion. “In 2022, we joined the PJTC family retreat for a weekend of studying text and making Jewish art,” Isaac said. “One of the projects was creating banners for their sukkah.” After the fire, Isaac and Shawna reached out to PJTC’s clergy team and offered to donate their time to create new banners and help replace some of what was lost.

Their home congregation, Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, quickly stepped in to help, offering to cover the cost of all the materials. “We’re a part of the larger Los Angeles community, and we do what we can,” said Or Ami’s Rabbi Paul Kipnes. “When Isaac and Shawna approached me with this opportunity to help our neighbors, we jumped at it.”

Before the workshop began, they spoke with the religious school about hiddur mitzvah—the commandment to beautify ritual objects and celebrations. “The Talmud tells us to make our ritual objects as beautiful as possible,’” said Rabbi Shawna. “For this project, that means bright colorful imagery celebrating the symbols of Sukkot.”

Throughout the day, PJTC members stopped by to add their fingerprints and to share memories and photos from the 2022 retreat. For many, the new banners felt like a tangible link to the past—and a hopeful step toward the future.

Rabbi Shawna summed it up with a verse from Deuteronomy: “Adonai your God will bless all that your hands have done and have yet to do, and you will have nothing but joy.”