BY ELLISHA CAPLAN, Member of the Jewish Living Delaware Advisory Committee
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There is a rich community of Jewish fiber artists in Northern Delaware who I’ve discovered over the past six or seven years. It started when Jan Goodman invited me to meet at the Starbucks on Concord Pike on a Thursday night with some other knitters and crocheters, and most (or maybe even all) of the six to eight women that showed up were Jewish. So often, the items being knitted were not for the maker, but for a loved one or a charitable purpose. One was preparing for the birth of her first granddaughter by knitting booties and beautiful little sweaters. Week after week, I watched her build up a little cache of handmade items that were sure to become family heirlooms. I watched in amazement as Jan knitted a sweater for her daughter at a speed which seemed faster than I could ever imagine achieving myself, and another member of the group made a scarf for her daughter who was away at college. When COVID hit, the group stopped meeting, but not before solidly rekindling my love for the fiber arts and teaching me that there are plenty of others in the local Jewish community who enthusiastically—and with great skill and creativity—make beautiful items through knit, crochet, tapestry, and other related textile arts. I asked some of the people I have met to share a favorite item or items and how they connect their Jewish identity or Jewish values to their craft.
Myrna Lawrence, Newark
Myrna, who was Director of Education at Congregation Beth Emeth for many years, shared a photo of a tallit that she made at her cousin Carole’s request. About it, she said, “This creation was truly a labor of love and my interpretation of the joyful vibe she was looking for! The colors remind me of stained-glass windows in the synagogue.” She added that the project helped her connect to her spirituality in a way that she misses.
Patricia Goldberg, Pike Creek
Pat, who is a long-time member of Temple Beth El, is a former art teacher and an artist who has worked in numerous mediums. She is currently learning how to crochet. She chose to hand sew and paint a tallit for her granddaughter’s bat mitzvah as a way of crafting a new family tradition. “My grandson wore my husband’s tallit for his bar mitzvah. (My husband wore it for his own Bar Mitzvah.) I made this tallit for my granddaughter because women of my generation did not have a bat mitzvah. I am known for my flower paintings so that’s why I painted flowers on the tallit.”
Becky Gutin, Pike Creek
Becky is Co-State Director for Delaware of America’s Tapestry, a commemorative initiative honoring the upcoming Semi-Sesquicentennial, and a regular member of the Hockessin Public Library’s “Knot Your Average Fiber Group.” She moved to Delaware from Pikesville, Maryland not long after retiring from Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in 2017, where she and her husband are still members.
“I rarely stitch seasonal/holiday/religious items, mostly because I forget to put them on display. When I met my husband (I am a Jew By Choice) 40-something years ago, I stitched a matzah cover and several framed Judaic pieces. It was important to me to blend my needlework with my Judaism.”
Gutin shared a family sampler that she cross-stitched. She worked with a designer to create a template in honor of her 25th wedding anniversary in 2010. “It contains motifs of things we enjoyed—my son’s habit of writing in little notebooks, my daughter’s summer camp for many years, our cat, our home in Pikesville, my husband’s hobby of stamp collecting, our shared interests in cooking and reading, and a menorah. Anywhere you see a date, that’s the birth date for the person whose name is hidden in the nearby alphabet. Our son, Marshall, has two dates, as he passed away as an infant, which is why there are dragonflies flitting around his name.”
Jan Goodman, North Wilmington
Jan is a member and past president of Congregation Beth Emeth and is a “connector” in the community of fiber arts enthusiasts: “As a lifelong knitter, knitting has always felt like more than a hobby to me. Knitting grounds me, and at the same time allows me to create something useful and hopefully beautiful.
When I sit with my needles and yarn, I feel a special connection to my grandmother—who taught me to knit—and who had such a gift for turning simple yarn into precious gifts for her family. In many ways, knitting mirrors how I experience my Jewish identity. Knitting is a very repetitive practice, and the steady rhythm often quiets my mind and provides a level of peacefulness that makes me feel as I do when I light Shabbat candles. My favorite knitting recipient these days is my grandson, and I’ve made it a personal goal to ensure he’s always wrapped in love.”
Dana Horowitz, North Wilmington
Dana, who also belongs to Congregation Beth Emeth, has knitted nearly three dozen items for the synagogue’s Mitzvah Menorah in 2025 alone. Items on the Mitzvah Tree are available on Tuesdays for visitors to Joseph’s Pantry to take what they need. “I learned how to knit when I was eight years old and it has been such a wonderful and comforting hobby, carrying me through many seasons of life. One of my favorite things about knitting is what a mitzvah it can be; I love seeing the joy and the feeling of being cared about when I give away one of my hats, blankets, or scarves.”
In 2020, knowing that my eldest son’s bar mitzvah would happen over Zoom, I decided to knit kippot for members of our immediate family. It was both something that I could control at a time when everything else felt like it was completely out of my hands, and a keepsake that connected our family from afar. Though we were in different Zoom rooms on his bar mitzvah day, we were brought a little bit closer together by the identical kippot worn by so many family members. Though my younger son’s bar mitzvah was joyfully in person, I decided to learn to crochet kippot for the same family members (plus a few new cousins born since 2020). When I told my friends in “Knot Your Average Fiber Group” that I planned to crochet 14 kippot, one member helped me with a pattern and more than a couple crocheting tutorials, and several members volunteered to help me, lightening my load substantially, and adding even more meaning and beauty to the process.
Opportunities to Connect to the Fiber Arts Community
1. Participate in the Annual Knit-for-Food Knit-a-Thon
Cantor Elizabeth Pellen of Congregation Beth Emeth sponsors a team annually. This year’s date is April 11, 2026.
2. Contribute Stitches to Delaware’s contribution to America’s Tapestry
Visit America’s Tapestry-Delaware on Facebook to find out about stitching locations https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1D8tKwchHh/, or email americastapestry.de@gmail.com
3. Attend a Library-sponsored Fiber Group
Mondays at 6 PM, Kirkwood Public Library
Wednesdays at 1 PM, Hockessin Public Library
Wednesday, at 6:30 PM, Woodlawn Public Library
Thursdays at 5:30 PM, Delaware City Public Library
Thursdays at 3 PM, Lewes Public Library
