Creating handmade crafts since she was a young girl, Noa Berenson, now 60, is not content anymore with only sharing them with her family. Together with her 26-year-old daughter, Yael Ramon, she has a vision for inspiring people around the world, while making their homes—and lives—more beautiful.
People talk about merging the spiritual and the physical world, but few manage to pull it off seamlessly. Berenson has turned a lifelong dream into reality this year by opening up an Etsy store with Ramon to sell their one-of-a-kind, handmade home designs and personal items.
With an array of art pieces that go beyond brightening up someone’s home or daily routine, Berenson and Ramon are quickly expanding their online store, Stitch and Spirit. “Our real goal is to inspire people and to bring goodness into the world,” Ramon said. “The dream that moved us to start this business is to bring joy to people and teach them how to combine the physical and spiritual.”
They design Judaica, arts, DIY kits and personalized handmade gifts including Rosh Hashanah cards, framed pictures of classic Jewish blessings, custom fabric covers for siddurim and tehillim, and more.
For Berenson, this is a fulfillment of a lifelong dream. “When I was Yael’s age I dreamed about doing this,” Berenson reflects, “But I was a mother surrounded by little kids, laundry, cooking and many other responsibilities.” Now that her children have children of their own, Berenson has time to pursue the dreams that have been percolating for years.
Ramon grew up with handmade art as a central and basic part of life. “My mother was always sewing and knitting. It was just part of our childhood,” she described. Berenson used to knit each child a special picture for their birthdays, make bags, tablecloths, costumes and even skirts and dresses that were passed down among the four sisters.
Wanting to involved her children, Berenson encouraged her kids to get their hands dirty—and it paid off. “I knitted my first bag when I was 8 years old,” Ramon said. “My mother was always very encouraging of our creativity and to try new things. As I grew up, I wanted to find out for myself the magic of working with your hands.”
It was also something that became a family pastime. “All the women in our family were always involved in art. We used to just sit together and design different crafts for fun,” Ramon said. “It was bonding for us.” Although she is the only one designing handmade home decor professionally, Ramon’s sisters all use their creativity in different ways. Her two older sisters wrote and designed the best-selling book, “The Secret of Challah,” and her younger sister is a graphic designer who also helps them with their store. “Our family is a team,” she said. “I’ve always felt that way.”
For those who know their family, this unique combination of materialism and spirituality is not a surprise. Berenson became religious soon after she married her husband, Aharon, a former mayor and a fighter pilot in the Israel Defense Forces—also a staunchly secular Jew. Berenson and her husband never let their religious differences get in the way of creating a warm and loving home.
In fact it become an essential part of raising their children. “My parents taught us how to merge differences,” Ramon described. “They remained happily married, never forcing any of us to follow either path, but setting beautiful examples by simply being themselves and living in harmony together.”
Although she grew up surrounded by art and creating art as a hobby, Ramon never really considered using her artistic talents professionally. “It’s a bit of a challenge for my own sense of self to transition from seeing my art as a hobby to seeing it as a professional craft,” she said. “But my dream to create and my love for beautiful and valuable handmade things has been stirring for many years, and last year I discovered the will to turn my art into something that other people can enjoy.”
With the support of her husband, over the years Berenson has built up a following with her uniquely designed charity boxes that get children (and adults) excited about sharing their money and make their home look more beautiful.
An artist with a global vision, Berenson is excited to get the business running in full force and prays “that our creations will reach all over the world like a torch that lights up faraway places.” Whether it’s the charity boxes that will encourage more people to give, a prayer book with a special cloth design that will help a little girl connect better to her prayers and tradition or signs with Hebrew letters adorning a young boy’s room—Berenson is determined to bring more beauty and meaning into people’s lives around the world.
With their shared dream, Berenson and Ramon get to work every day creating products to send out to brighten up the world. What’s their secret? “Joy, love and creativity drive the creation of our products, so we each do the part that we are good at and feel most connected to,” Ramon said.
Among their unique home decor pieces are prints and knitted pictures of famous or humorous Yiddish sayings, like “Sleep is the best doctor” and “Eat, pray and be a mensch.” In addition to inspiring people, the mother-daughter team want their designs to form a link between the generations, as Jewish traditions have been passed down through the generations. “Yiddish was the language of the grandparents,” Berenson explains, “And now it is up to the grandchildren to keep it alive—even if it’s just in their kitchens.”
When she is not working on art or tending to her three young children, Ramon and her husband run a dorm for troubled kids. Seeing the love, acceptance and true connection to spirituality that is lacking in these teens’ lives, Ramon feels even more driven in her art. “In our generation, where physicality and materialism often overshadow spirituality, I feel that specifically now there is also a special opportunity to connect the depth of physicality with the depth of spirituality,” she said.
Their venture is rewarding to Berenson’s mother as well. “My mother is 92 years old now,” Berenson said, “and she is overjoyed that her daughter is finally forging the path that she always wanted to take.”
As Berenson so aptly put it, “It’s never too late.”
To learn more about their products or purchase something for yourself or as a gift, visit their Etsy store online, StitchAndSpirit by Noa and Yael. Jewish Link readers get a 10 percent discount with the code JEWISHLINKNJ10.
By Raizel Druxman
