Memorial Parochets in Honor of Donny Morris z"l
With Lag B'Omer around the corner, we remember the tragedy in Meron three years ago. We have lost important members of the Jewish nation, among them Donny Moris. Donny Morris was sweet, dedicated, smart, humble, and devoted to his family and community and he cared deeply about the Torah. He loved learning Torah and was very careful to have proper respect for it as well.
To commemorate his life, his family decided to dedicate 3 Parochets to the Beit Medrash of Congregation of Beth Abraham, where Donny spent much of his time. The new parochets serve to elevate the Torah learning there and surely enhances the Kavod Hatorah. That was something that Donny cared deeply about.
Eta Strulowitz, the interior designer who was completing the design of the Shul and Beit Midrash last year, got in touch with me and asked if I could design a custom set of parochets l'iluy nishmat Donny.
When she mentioned his name, I recalled that I had actually followed Donny's photo online in real-time, as the tragic Lag Baomer tragedy unfolded in 2021 and I had davened for him to be found, safe and sound. I really felt a connection to his story.
I was so honored to be a part of his memorial parochet project. That will both pay homage to Donny Morris z”l and inspire the shul members!
Eta requested three stylized typographic psukim parochets for the shul.
An All-Year-Round Parochet for the main Shul, plus a Holiday Parochet to match, and a Shalosh Regalim Parochet for Donny's memory as well.
She wanted the parochets to flow with her serene, elegant, clean design. With a tiny bit of contrast.
Here are initial renders of the shul and the vine motif she wanted to use in the mechitza and wanted to see in the main year-round parochet.
Here are some pictures of the mood board and the inspiration that we came up with for the parochets:
Next, we had to figure out what passuk they wanted written on the Parochet.
I proposed to them a few psukim, and I also wanted to hear the family's input- maybe they'd have a certain passuk in mind that they feel represents what Donny stood for as a person.
These are the pisukim that I came up with to use:
אוֹהֵב שָׁלוֹם, וְרוֹדֵף שָׁלוֹם, אוֹהֵב אֶת הַבְּרִיּוֹת, וּמְקָרְבָן לַתּוֹרָה
איש את רעהו יעזורו ולאחיו יאמר חזק
כי אם עשות משפט ואהבת חסד והצנע לכת עם אלקיך
וחסד ה׳ מעולם ועד עולם על יראיו וצדקתו לבני בנים
יִשְׂרָאֵל נוֹשַׁע בַּה' תְּשׁוּעַת עוֹלָמִים
And the final Passuk that they picked was:
A very fitting pasuk for the person that Donny was.
Here are the final renders of all 3 parochets before production:
Behind the scenes of bringing the parochet come to life!
This parochet is now in Bergenfield NJ where now it stands tall, commemorating the life of Donny Morris, May his Neshama have the biggest Aliya, Amen
