Is Passover the New Chanukah?
From Seder plates to T-Shirts, Indie Entrepreneur "Boom" Boosts Proliferation of Passover Gift Marketing.
Los Angeles, CA, March 26, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Time was when Chanukah, under the influence of Christmas marketing, was the promoted as “the” gift-giving Jewish holiday in America. Although diversity and political correctness has if anything, given Chanukah more visibility than ever, the fact is there's a new contender on the block, Moishe, and its name is Passover.
Online shopping and a proliferation of "indie" artists have made Passover an increasingly important holiday for gift giving. While traditionally the more observant among us buy new household items for Passover, what we see now is a boom of unique and creative Judaica designs. What makes these products different? They are designed by independent artists, are not mass-produced and have a finger on the pulse of rapidly changing trends. Pesach products range from elegant seder plates to whimsical printed kippot and that ubiquitous standard of modern life -- the t-shirt.
One of these is the Los Angeles based Rotem Gear. Each year the one-woman company brings out a new pop-culture response to Passover. This year's newest, "im in ur kitchen eating ur knaidels" is a take on the popular internet phenomenon known as "lol cats" from the site "I Can Has Cheeseburger" (no, not a non-kosher food site, but silly photographs of cats with misspelled captions.) The 1950s, the hipster movement and other themes are also popular with buyers.
Creator Jean Roth, who started Rotem Gear in 2002, says her line of Jewish-themed artisan t-shirts fill a void by including Sephardic culture and the growing Israeli-American community. "Yiddish and Borscht Belt themed t-shirts abound, but when we launched there was nothing for non-Ashkenazis, or for those of us who are bi-cultural," she says. Best sellers include the "Sephardilicious" and "What Would Maimonides Do?" lines, but the retro inspired designs are popular with all customers of all backgrounds. Roth has also been commissioned to create customized designs for entire seder guest lists.
A look at sites like etsy.com, where independent emerging artists sell their own work directly to the public, will likewise bring up unique Judaica creations that veer away from the middle of the road.
Rotem Gear t-shirts are available online at www.rotemgear.com. Contact: Jean Roth, Rotem Gear, info@rotemgear.com
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Online shopping and a proliferation of "indie" artists have made Passover an increasingly important holiday for gift giving. While traditionally the more observant among us buy new household items for Passover, what we see now is a boom of unique and creative Judaica designs. What makes these products different? They are designed by independent artists, are not mass-produced and have a finger on the pulse of rapidly changing trends. Pesach products range from elegant seder plates to whimsical printed kippot and that ubiquitous standard of modern life -- the t-shirt.
One of these is the Los Angeles based Rotem Gear. Each year the one-woman company brings out a new pop-culture response to Passover. This year's newest, "im in ur kitchen eating ur knaidels" is a take on the popular internet phenomenon known as "lol cats" from the site "I Can Has Cheeseburger" (no, not a non-kosher food site, but silly photographs of cats with misspelled captions.) The 1950s, the hipster movement and other themes are also popular with buyers.
Creator Jean Roth, who started Rotem Gear in 2002, says her line of Jewish-themed artisan t-shirts fill a void by including Sephardic culture and the growing Israeli-American community. "Yiddish and Borscht Belt themed t-shirts abound, but when we launched there was nothing for non-Ashkenazis, or for those of us who are bi-cultural," she says. Best sellers include the "Sephardilicious" and "What Would Maimonides Do?" lines, but the retro inspired designs are popular with all customers of all backgrounds. Roth has also been commissioned to create customized designs for entire seder guest lists.
A look at sites like etsy.com, where independent emerging artists sell their own work directly to the public, will likewise bring up unique Judaica creations that veer away from the middle of the road.
Rotem Gear t-shirts are available online at www.rotemgear.com. Contact: Jean Roth, Rotem Gear, info@rotemgear.com
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Contact
Rotem Gear
Jean Roth
(310) 313-1690
www.rotemgear.com
Jean Roth
(310) 313-1690
www.rotemgear.com
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