Laurel Robinson is no ordinary artist or teacher. She is a classic storyteller who blends knowledge and belief into a visual performance. Since 1978, the "worldly occupation" of Robinson has been the making and teaching of art at Georgia Southwestern State University. But, in the late 1980’s, she realized that her secular world-view had been strongly influenced by her Conservative Jewish upbringing and education in Pittsburgh. Heeding the instruction of Rabbi Eleazar, Robinson started to concentrate on what binds her to Judaism, more consciously exploring her Jewish identity as it embedded itself within her worldly occupation. Her wok began to reflect her Jewish education.

An experience in Budapest soon crystallized how she felt about works of Judaica.

"At the Jewish Museum, a docent speaking in English, was leading a group of tourists from one display case to the next. The young woman was explaining the use of the objects that were arranged by holiday or lifecycle event. It all had the sound and feel of any history lecture about a civilization that no longer existed. This museum monologue made Jews – made me – feel like relics, not involved with the objects on display. I stood there saddened that the rimmonim were not decorating Torah scrolls; that Shabbat candles were not being lit every Friday night in the silver candelabra, that the groggers weren’t grogged, that the dreidels weren’t spun."

This encounter compelled Robinson to ensure that her Judaic artifacts were living, breathing objects used by Jews as they fulfilled God’s commandments. Robinson’s first foray into creating usable objects – Torah pointers – happened on a whim. Alice Winn, writer, explains Robinson’s journey into the world of Judaica:

"A particular manifestation of the nature of Judaism is that the connection between God and human beings is a relationship of minds mediated by instruction, through the Torah, the book that embodies morality and law. Robinson has based works around this theme in the form of variations on Torah pointers, traditionally fashioned in the shape of a hand, which shows the way through this sacred text. In order to personalize and connect people to Torah, she began making the pointers for friends to carry with them to synagogue to use when they were reading." (March/April 2000 edition of Contrast – Pittsburgh’s art forum)

The first yad Robinson carved was from an old ebony piano key for her friend and rabbi, Aaron Rubinstein, a jazz and keyboard player and spiritual leader of Congregation Sha’arey Israel in Macon, Georgia. The luster of the ebony deepened with use, and inspired Robinson to make more.

Since this first carving, Robinson has creating many more yadot. (While yadayim usually connotes pairs of hands, yadot is used in the Talmud when it refers to types of handles. Richard Friedman, a biblical scholar, decided that yadot seemed appropriate for the plural of yad, as a pointer is not a real hand.) Most have been gifts recognizing accomplishments, or encouraging women to read Torah, for rabbinical students to be always inspired, or to motivate b’nai mitzvah to continue reading Torah after their rite of passage. All are personalized.

From small beginnings large journeys are taken. Robinson then began a series of yadot, some with holiday themes, and others just to try out a new kind of wood or interesting shape. They are carved from exotic woods and antlers shed by animals that were never harmed during her gathering process. Robinson uses varied materials but subscribes to the Ashkenazi minhag not to make yadot from metals used for weaponry. The woods are treated in ways that enhance their natural qualities. The yadot are also inscribed with quotations appropriate for their intended use. More recently, Robinson has begun carving boxes for the yadot that afford additional space for words of inspiration and motivation. Often, selections from the poetry of her friend Marcia Falk, appear on the containers.

When people wanted to put her yadot series into display cases, showing them to the public merely as objects, Robinson refused. Thus, the Yad l‘Yad – Hand to Hand project was born.

During the summers, Laurel Robinson transforms into Dafna Robinson, Rosh Amanut (art director) at Camp Ramah Darom, situated in Northern Georgia. It was for camp that Dafna Robinson inaugurated the Hand to Hand project.

"As was pointed out in a drash by Rabbi Joe Wasser (Congregation Kol Ami, Tampa, Florida), we Jews hold the things we bless in our hands: hallah, lulav, etrog, kiddush cup, Torah… So I packed up 25 yadot in their boxes and brought them to camp. I made a book with a page for each yad. At camp, Torah is read Mondays, Thursdays and twice on Shabbat, in up to three different locales for different age groups. Before each service I would arrive announcing 'Yadz are Us' and leave a yad. Then, after Shabbat, all of the readers would find me to sign the page for the yad they used. The yadot were all well used, rain or shine, by staff members and campers as young as 10. Kids were very involved; several asked to learn to read Torah so that they, too, could use a yad. This is what I had in mind."

Some of Robinson’s yadot have since been displayed at several synagogues and at the American Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh, but always with the understanding that the yadot can be borrowed and used by local minyamin. Any new yadot are "broken in" at her congregation in Macon. And whenever Robinson gets private commissions, the individuals must promise that they will read Torah with the yad rather than relegate it to a display case.

Even though Laurel Robinson has fused her dual backgrounds into an artistic expression both unique and powerful, perhaps her greatest talent lies in her ability to challenge us to understand our traditions and to encounter Judaism daily by informing its material religious objects with life and worldly purpose.

Outlook readers who live in the San Francisco area can visit the upcoming exhibit at the Magnes Museum. Robinson’s Magic Etrog – a carved etrog that "lives" in a small sukkah – will leave its cloistered existence at camp and synagogues and make its debut on the worldly stage.