“Drawing and painting are what I love to do. It’s demanding and hard work, but I love the challenge. Before I put brush to canvas, I approach my easel with a prayer to Hashem asking for success. I know that success depends on siyata dishmayah, Divine intervention.”
~~ Chava Roth ~~
Ellen Geller Kamaras
Chava Roth is a gifted and passionate artist and teacher. She is a loving sister, wife, mother, and grandmother. She has an extensive background in the visual arts and throughout her flourishing career has won scholarships and prestigious prizes for her art.
Her Flatbush home and art studio is a visual delight. Portraits adorn the walls, including a beautiful rendition of Rabbi Avigdor Miller, zt”l, Chava’s husband’s rebbe.Another touching portrait features her husband sitting at a table learning, with their young son gazing at him.
Chava recently completed a stunning oil painting, a scene featuring the charming Yemin Moshe neighborhood in Yerushalayim. Yemin Moshe was the first settlement built outside the Old City walls in 1892. Adding her own special touch, Chava included her personal vision and perspective to the painting, so you will not find the exact house or even block in Yemin Moshe if you go looking.
Her most popular painting is titled “Four Soldiers.” It depicts two soldiers and two Chassidim wearing talletim walking in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Chava’s studio is lovely, well-lit, and spacious. Her easel was signed by a mentor and close friend, the artist Itzshak Holtz, a”h. Holtz was considered the most influential contemporary Jewish genre painter of his time.
Let’s explore Chava’s roots, her childhood and education, her professional trajectory, and Chavathe Jewish woman.
Roots
Of Ashkenazic descent, Chava was born and bred in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents, Hadassa and Chaim Shapiro, were Polish Holocaust survivors who met and married in a D.P. camp in Germany before emigrating to the United States.
Hadassa spent four of her teenage years in a concentration camp. After raising her children, she worked as a mashgiach for the OU and Star K. “My mother was a tremendous ba’alat hesed.”
Her father Chaim, a”h, was a renowned speaker and author who told of his war experiences of hiding and survival. He is the author of the popular memoir, Go My Son. As a young yeshiva student, he went from frozen tundra to battlefields, fleeing from the Nazis and barely escaping death. His account is an upbeat story of survival, faith, and ingenuity laced with miracles and Divine intervention. He was the first to write about the Gedolim of Europe in his many articles in the Jewish Observer and his book Once Upon a Shtetl.
The second of five children, Chava describes her childhood as very happy. Her parents chose to speak about the Shoah with their children. They always provided an uplifting and loving atmosphere filled with Yiddishkeit.
Chava studied at Bais Yaakov institutions from 1st through 12th grade. After high school she spent a year at “BJJ” Bais Yaakov of Yerushalayim Seminary in Israel.
“I had no formal art lessons until after seminary. I recall my mother showing me how to draw flowers at a young age.”
In sixth grade, Chava had a school assignment to create a booklet of the 39 melachot, the categories of creative activity that are forbidden on Shabbat. Her fellow classmates illustrated their booklets with pictures from magazines. Since her parents didnot subscribe to any magazines, Chava drew her own illustrations of the 39 melachot. Upon returning the graded booklets, her teacher praised Chava profusely and she became the “artist of the class” and the school artist as well.
Awarded a scholarship to the prominent Maryland Institute of Art, Chava began her studies there after studying in seminary in Israel. While pursuing her degree, she taught in a Baltimore Hebrew school. A summa cum laude recipient of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Chava moved to New York to study for her master’s in fine arts at Queens College.
Chava’s Essence
She possesses a special spark, charm, and chen (grace). Her friends and family say she is creative and fun, and she lights up when speaking about her family and her art.
And Then Came Marriage
Chava was introduced to her husband, Dovid Roth, in her second year of graduate school. He was a math lecturer and later became a statistical analyst working in medical research and for retail companies.
They adopted the hashkafa of Rabbi Avigdor Miller, Dovid’s rav, and raised their children accordingly. Rabbi Miller teaches that, “In Hakodesh Boruch Hu’s beautiful world, a person has to utilize everything around him to attain perfection of his soul. And to know that this temporary world is a corridor to Olam Haba, the true everlasting world.”
Now retired, Dovid is the gabbai at Rabbi Miller’s shul and instructs people of all ages how to learn Gemara. He studies and teaches Rabbi Miller’s sefer, Lev Avigdor, which imparts how to live successfully in this world. Lectures are available on Zoom.
During graduate school, Chava’s work was primarily abstract expressionism. She appreciates her husband’s encouragement for her subsequent focus on realism. Shortly after they married, he asked Chava to paint a charcoal portrait of Rabbi Miller.
“Several people saw it and commissioned me to paint the Rav’s portrait in oil. So began my career in portrait painting.”Chava has created portrait paintings of many famous rabbis including Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, zt”l.
She was given a photo of the Lubavitcher Rebbe delivering a lecture surrounded by his followers. After obtaining written permission from the photographer, she began the painting. It took her a full six months to complete. Leaving the Rebbe’s portrait for last, she spent all night working on it. In the morning the news spread that the Rebbe had passed away that night.
Chava has created captivating, realistic Jewish marionettes, which are beautifully crafted. She even madea marionette that looks like of herself as a narrator. At the Maryland Institute, Chava took a course in puppet making. Her teacher was a famous puppeteer who had performed in the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s family. When her teacher retired, Chava bought his marionette stage (used in the White House performance) that he had spent a lifetime building. She constructed the marionettes and stage sets and developed shows based on midrashim.
Her first puppet performance was in a notable Manhattan gallery, along with her paintings. Metropolitan Museum of Art and Jewish Museum representatives attended. As a young newlywed, Chava received a government grant to create and perform puppet shows all over NY in hospitals, nursing homes, community centers, and schools. She and her puppets appeared on television.
“When I was expecting our first child, I gave up puppeteering because the stage setup was physically too taxing. But the puppets still accompany us to weddings to be misameach the chattan and kallah and for our grandchildren on Hanukah.”
Chava focused on two-dimensional projects for the next years, drawing and painting classical realism. She uses the classical approach to paint true-to-life strikingly beautiful scenes.
She took a position as an art teacher for women at the Boro Park Y when her youngest child started school. Chava has been there for over 35 years, teaching Chassidic, Sephardic, and Ashkenazic women of all ages. “These classes are so much fun and [are] an important part of my life.”
Chava also gives art lessons to developmentally disabled adult women in HASC residences. These students especially enjoy the creative process.
She established her own company, Judaica Fine Art, where she sells originals, reproductions, and accepts new commissions.
Balance
Chava always found time to draw and paint. When her kids were young, she focused on pastels instead of oils as this medium was neater, which was necessary in her small apartment. She worked on many commissions.
Her children appreciate her art. Before leaving for camp one summer, one of her sons set up a shul scene in her living room for her to paint. He borrowed a Sefer Torah cover and a parochet, (the Ark cover) from his yeshiva. Chava added her own vision by inserting a sewing machine, thereby making it relatable to her. Portraits of her grandchildren are often included in Chava’s scenes, which gives them her own personal touch.
For over 40 years, Chava has created Judaica paintings portraying the Jewish people and religious places and objects that are close to her heart. Her paintings have been showcased in galleries, museums, and private collections throughout the U.S., Europe, and Israel.
”It’s a privilege that I don’t take lightly to be able to focus on the beauty and splendor of Hashem’s world, for it is truly breathtaking.”
Fun Facts
Chava illustrates and paints portraits for invitations and benchers for semachot. Prints of her pictures hang in kosher restaurants and other venues. You can email Chava at chavaroth@verizon.netand check out her website, www.judaicafineart.com.Ellen Geller Kamaras, CPA/MBA, is an International Coach Federation (ICF) Associate Certified Coach. Her coaching specialties include life, career, and dating coaching. She can be contacted at ellen@lifecoachellen.com.