Debra Band

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Jun 6, 2019, 1:00 AM

Living Ruth: The Value of Kindness

On Shavuot, apart from cheesecake, we encounter two of our most wonderful stories, the giving of the Torah at Sinai, of course, and then, the Book of Ruth. Ruth is one of my own favorites; I spent several years...

Sep 6, 2018, 2:58 AM

Imagining Hannah

Hannah, Illumination 9, from Arise! Arise! Deborah, Ruth and Hannah, by Debra Band

One of the things I look forward to during Rosh Hashanah is the communal reading of the story of Hannah, the mother of the founder of the Israelite monarchy, which begins First Samuel. Hannah’s tale was matched with the...

Jul 12, 2018, 6:50 AM

Nature Speaks — Listen! The Sea has Something to Say

Are you off to the seashore this summer? When you stand at water’s edge, what else do you hear besides the happy shrieks of children, the gulls’ cries and roar of the waves? As you contemplate the ocean’s grandeur,...

Jul 3, 2018, 1:45 AM

Nature Speaks — Listen! the Aurora Has Something to Say

It’s hard not to feel Nature singing God’s praises, whether in the vivid blue sky overhead this afternoon… or in the brilliant aurora, when the sun showers electromagnetic particles on Earth’s polar atmosphere to produce shimmering curtains of colored...

Jun 28, 2018, 7:01 AM

Nature Speaks — Listen! The Grass Has Something to Say

Since early childhood I’ve been spellbound by the endless varieties of life that pop out of simple clumps of grass. Now it’s a delight to pass this tiny adventure on to my toddler grand-daughter. It’s hard not to feel...

Jun 25, 2018, 7:02 AM

Nature Speaks — Listen! The Rain Has Something to Say

On the East Coast of the US we’ve been inundated with unusually heavy rain throughout the late winter and spring. Yet during the storms and in the brief glimpses of sunlight in between it’s hard not to feel Nature...

Jun 21, 2018, 7:01 AM

Nature Speaks — Listen! Lightning Has Something to Say

On the East Coast of the US we were inundated with unusually heavy rain throughout the late winter and spring, and even Israel has seen unseasonable rains recently. Yet even during the storms and in the brief glimpses...

Jun 19, 2018, 7:00 AM

Nature Speaks — Listen! Earth Has Something to Say

In springtime it’s hard not to feel Nature singing God’s praises…in the birdsong, the breeze, the fragile and brilliant blossoms that suddenly burst in my garden, even the tiny tomatoes that are finally appearing. The medieval Jewish classic,...

Jul 30, 2017, 8:26 AM

Illuminating Judah Halevi on Tisha b’Av

We are approaching the Ninth of Av, Tisha b’Av, the fast commemorating the anniversary of the destructions of both Jerusalem Temples in 586 BCE by Babylonia, and in 70 C.E. by Rome. In preparing for Tisha b’Av, I’d like...

May 24, 2017, 7:00 AM

Celebrating Yom Yerushalayim

Chag sameach! I was a small child living in the southern US on the day that Jerusalem was reunited in 1967, and I can remember my parents’, especially my mother’s, tension during the war, and overwhelming excitement and joy that...

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About Me

Debra Band’s works include illuminated books, ketubot and other artwork. She exhibits and lectures across the English-speaking world. Her celebrated books, fusing scholarship with fine art, illuminate the Song of Songs, Psalms, biblical women’s stories;the Friday night liturgy and customs, and her adaptation of the medieval classic, Perek Shira, All the World Praises You: an illuminated Aleph-Bet book (July 15, 2018).