MEZUZAH COLLECTION: Ain Hod Mezuzah

Belle met 'Shalom,' an elderly man selling mezuzut from a makeshift display counter, at the Ain Hod artist's colony in Israel in 1965. His mezuzot tell the compelling story of spirit unbroken and of the triumph of the Jewish people and their heritage in the face of adversity.

Before World War II, Shalom lived in a small town in Poland where he made his living by writing parchments for mezuzot and other Jewish ritual objects. When the Germans rounded up all the Jews in his town to deport to concentration camps, he managed to hide some small parchments and a pen on his person.

After arriving at the camp, he vowed to write as many mezuzot as possible and to distribute them to each barrack where they were placed in hidden crevices behind doors. In order to preserve the mezuzots' inner parchments properly, he managed to obtain brown paper bags which he tore into squares in which to wrap them. To ensure that the parchments would not fall out, he twisted both ends of the paper to hold it.

Shalom was the only survivor of his family, all of whom perished in the smokestacks of the crematoria. When he arrived in Israel in 1950, he began to resume his former career as a scribe.

He designed the mezuzah case depicted here to honor the memory of his beloved family and friends. It is constructed of black iron to recall the smoking chimneys of the crematoria. The design, measuring 7" x 3/4," commemorates the twisted brown paper he used to enclose the parchments he wrote in the camp which helped sustain many inmates through their agony.