By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
Rachel’s Well Community Mikvah has been a place of spiritual meaning since its opening in 2017. ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists is looking to add to that experience with the first or a series of art-related programs at the mikvah.
Zac Banik, an arts educator, helped lead that program, an Erev Shavuot observance Tuesday, June 11, along with Rabbi Josh Rose of Co/Lab for a group of 15 artists. 
“We wanted to bring the community, and not just our community, ORA, but the community at large, to be a part of, you know, coming together to make the art for the space that we share together,” Banik said.
The mikvah’s waiting area is currently quite unadorned for two reasons: the aesthetic challenge of creating work that is thematically appropriate to the enormous variety of people who use the mikvah and the humidity that comes from being adjacent to a heated pool, which can damage the materials in many artistic mediums. 
The program began with a tour of the facility from its manager, Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Chief Allocations and Engagement Officer Caron Blau Rothstein, along with Hebrew singing led by Eddy Shuldman, the marketing and publicity director for ORA. The group then moved to a text study with Rabbi Rose and a creative exercise with Banik to, as he explained, “get their gears turning.”
The turning of those gears is planned to lead to the production of work that can be displayed at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and at the mikvah itself. 
“We had a broad spectrum of folks who really want to engage and want to study, learn, have something text-based to help immerse themselves in the study of Torah,” Shuldman said, embracing the pun, “and we picked Shavuot because it’s traditional for people to go to the mikvah.”
It’s also traditional to aesthetically enhance the objects used in Jewish rituals of all kinds, a concept that goes by the Hebrew name hiddur mitzvah, which translates to “beautifying the commandment.” It’s value is not lost on Shuldman.
“As artists, the honor of contributing to hiddur mitzvah, the honor of embellishing and making a ritual spiritual experience more beautiful, is a gift,” she said.
Another gift came in the form of a contribution from the Stern Grandchildren’s Fund of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation to put on the program. In the future, ORA hopes to raise additional funds to create an artistic residency program to create work for the mikvah; work which the artists involved would be compensated for. 
“It’s not just the honor alone,” Shuldman said of the importance of a compensated residency. It’s also recognizing that the artists’ work has merit and value.”
“As Jews, we have a very long history, and we rightfully and beautifully lean on that history,” Banik said. But it’s also important that we have a present and a future, and as Jewish artists, we’re part of that. We’re part of a continuation of, the creation of, Jewish culture.”
In addition to his arts education work, Banik is a prolific and multi-talented artist himself. Trained in furniture design, he has designed modernist Judaica while also painting, drawing, and working in other mediums. 
“My art practice is always expanding, but it comes from a place of storytelling and trying to expand upon the groundwork that our forebears have laid; artistically, culturally, religiously,” Banik said.
The program is co-sponsored by ORA, Co/Lab, Rachel’s Well, and the MJCC. For more information, visit northwestjewishartists.org.