Modern Ritual

When it came time to partake in rituals like lighting the Shabbat candles or setting the seder plate, designer Stanley Saitowitz of Natoma Architects, Inc., saw nothing but a sea of Star of David–bedecked kitsch. Unable to find the goods that suited both his aesthetic and his practice, he set about designing a spare, modern suite of Jewish objects—on view in the exhibit Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco through October 16, 2012—that runs the gamut from menorahs to kiddush cups. We asked Saitowitz why he had to make what he couldn’t find.