Haaretz: 70 years of Israeli design

They didn’t think of this even at IKEA. The packaging department at the Swedish design and furniture giant still has something to learn from NVN, a company producing original Jewish items in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. These include a pocketsize ritual hand-washing cup they invented, which solves the problem of the religiously mandated premeal handwashing when roughing it. The cup has a PVC handle designed in the shape of a small tower, a base and a water container. Printed on it is a picture of the Cave of the Patriarchs and the word “Hebron.” This is undoubtedly a political hand-washing tool. The cup is inflated before being filled with water; after the hands are washed and the air is let out, it is reduced to a pocket-sized article. Not just that-the hand-washing cup is valid according to Jewish law, as long as inflation does not occur on the Shabbat.

High-end designers flood themarketwithbeautifuland elegant items butit’s doubtful that any of them are quite as practical, efficient, simple and cheap as this pocket hand-washing cup, which doesn’t quite meet accepted esthetic standards. This artide is but one ofseveral impressive devices, designed to assist the ultra-Orthodox public in safely navigating quotidian life, now being shown in an exhibition called “We shall make it: Secular and sacred artifacts.” Curated by Naama Steinbock and IdanFriedman fromReddish Studio, the exhibition opened over the weekend at the Artists House Tel Aviv.

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