Mordechai Hazan is a rather unorthodox Orthodox Jew. At his North Hollywood studio, Jewish Art, the spirited Israeli native dances around a porcelain palace of Noah's Ark dreidels replete with 3-D giraffes and tigers, kaleidoscope-colored Seder plates with hand-sculpted roses and butterflies, and whimsical, handmade $100 mezuzahs. These are not your bubbie's blue and white tchotchkes!
"Obviously, there are religious links to my art. But when I create, it's with a lot of freedom," admits Hazan, who, since 1988, has earned a reputation selling his "usable collectibles" at his store and locally to Museum of Tolerance, Skirball Cultural Center and numerous other judaica stores and galleries.
Hazan is part of a renaissance in Jewish ceremonial art that has its roots in the '70's. "It's a fabulous phenomenon which is still thriving," says Skirball curator Grace Cohen Grossman. Indeed. But sacred mezuzah cases adorned with brass instruments (special order for Herb Alpert) or an electric guitar (Neil Diamond)?
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