Temma came by her love of fabric from the many hours spent with her grandparents in their ladies’ wear store in Toronto. She went on to study literary symbolism, in English and Russian, at the University of Toronto, learned to teach, and later graduated from the Ontario College of Art.
Her unplanned—but fortuitous—turn towards Judaic textiles came when Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut asked her to weave him a prayer shawl. Her work is now part of religious observance for numerous individuals and congregations throughout the world and is also in several museum collections.
Her projects included 20′ high ark doors for B’nai Torah Congregation (Boca Raton FL), a tapestry for the Church of St John the Evangelist (Port Hope ON), 3000 sq ft of window covering panels for a McDonalds restaurant (Toronto ON), a mixed media vessel for the Ohel Moshe Museum in Shanghai China, and an ongoing series of mezuzah cases inspired by ethnographic women’s textiles.
Temma was a winner of the Spertus Judaica Prize, recipient of Ontario Arts Council grants, a founder of the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Textiles, and a former board member of Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. She was the first artist-in-residence at Holy Blossom Temple (Toronto ON) when she launched Torah Stitch By Stitch.
While on sabbatical with her husband in Israel she designed and created costumes for The Mikado. On a subsequent sabbatical—in a moment of inspired lunacy—she created this project.
She considered that the essence of all her work was bringing stories to life. And she did so beautifully. Her medium was fabric, and her stories were interwoven with creativity and love.
Sadly, Temma passed away in July 2023.
