Beaded Stars of David and embroidered pomegranates will soon travel from Milwaukee to hang on a wall in Israel.
Some of those close to Israel’s north or south fronts have been displaced from their homes and are now living at Hotel Nof Kinneret in Tiberias. To show their love, the Local Emergency Volunteerism Support of Israel team recruited Milwaukeeans to create a quilt to send to the hotel and hang in the common area.
Jessie Schwade and Jennifer Essak spearheaded the Support of Israel team and the quilt project. The Local Emergency Volunteer effort was created in response to Oct. 7, with assistance from Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
“Our goal … was to connect directly with people,” Schwade said.
The concept for the quilt is that it is a “women to women project” because a majority of the people in the hotel are women.
“We want to ask each woman in the Jewish community to create something that comes from her memory, her thoughts, her empowerment of what it’s like to be a Jew,” said Fannie Weirauch, who contributed six squares to the quilt.
Essak contacted synagogues to ask them to find congregants to contribute to the quilt project. Then, Schwade, some of her friends and women from the synagogues crafted about 30 squares.
“I thought this was an excellent way for those of us over here to maybe help someone feel a little bit better about being in a hotel waiting to go someplace,” Weirauch said.
Five children also contributed to the project. A smaller,12-square quilt will be sent to the hotel on their behalf. An exact date to send the quilts has not yet been selected, and a similar quilt is to be sent from Israel to Milwaukee in a show of solidarity, said Susie Rosengarten, Partnership2Gether coordinator for Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
Schwade said the situation in Israel has led her to the need for Jewish community support.
“The Jews around the world – we need to be strong.”
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A second quilt, created mostly by Milwaukee-area children, is also being sent to Israel.
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