New Logo

From the Rabbi, November 2004

Beautiful, isn't it?! Logo design is unbelievably complex — how do you distill the essence of a community, with its hundreds of people and dozens of goals and principles, into a simple, symbolic, aesthetically satisfying work of mini-art? In our case, with thanks to volunteers and artist/designers alike, it just clicked.

The stated objectives for our reducible-to-one-inch image were many. It should communicate key attributes of Adat Shalom (ethical, spiritual, intellectual, caring, etc); hint at our stellar sanctuary and architecture; capture our religious philosophy; and be simple, yet meaningfully Jewish. Somehow, our new logo does all this, and more. It's symbolic, suggestive, scintillating, and simple; it's Shalomian.

Much like the tenting material in our sanctuary to which the logo points, we will all find our own levels of meaning in the new design. I offer here a "top ten" list of interpretations for our new logo:

1. Shin: The letter "shin," for Shalom or Shaddai (as on a mezuzah) — the whole logo is in a sense a stylized "shin." 2. Ayin: Shalom is great, but where's "Adat?" Ah, in the negative space — the white spaces between the prongs of the shin make a shape like that of an "ayin," the opening letter of "Adat." 3. "A": Recognizing that we live in two civilizations, when viewed with the head tilted to the left, the logo contains ayin and shin — but when looked at with the head tilted to the right, it resembles a letter "A," again for Adat  (unless it's our grade for how we form community?). 4. Flight: The design suggests the shape of the tent inside our sanctuary, much like a wing with feathers (perhaps a dove, connoting peace/shalom?) — to symbolize being enwrapped tachat kanfei ha-Shechinah, beneath the wings of the Divine Presence. 5. Water: The tent image comes up again, in the shape of a sail — matching the neo-nautical themes throughout our building and the standing water by the entrance, symbolic of purification through water as one entered the Temple. 6. Tallit: The white stripes in the middle, which might be the letter ayin, also suggest the stripes of a tallit, highlighting our connection with traditional ritual practice — and with Jews around the world, who don their tallitot  just as we do.

7. Warmth and welcome: Whether a tallit or Divine Wings, we are enfolded together beneath something larger — symbolizing the openness and welcoming nature of our community, just as the tent of Abraham and Sarah saw much hachnasat orchim, welcoming of guests. 8. Motion, action, change: The logo's energy points to the vitality of our community; acts of lovingkindness in our tradition; belief in constant reflection and change, and the idea of God as "becoming" — the Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey name of God being an anagram of "haya-hoveh-yiyheh," "was-is-will-be." 9. Angles and curves: The logo is both gentle and sharp, soothing and edgy, with flow and ebb alongside abrupt endings and beginnings — as if to unify feminine and masculine archetypes, and to model our ideological as well as social inclusiveness. 10. Horizontal and vertical: Finally, almost as in a graph with an x-axis and a y-axis, the logo points both upward and across — as if to match the two central categories of relationship and of action in our lives: bein adam l'Makom, between a person and God; and bein adam l'chavero, between one person and another.

Again, our thanks and mazel tov to those who helped bring the logo to fruition. We will see it prominently displayed on the newly-revamped website in the weeks ahead, and also in the materials for that all-important project of the coming season, our Capital Campaign. May we enjoy the logo and all that it stands for. May we rally under it, interpret it, be moved and reminded by it, and find that it conveys—with beauty and accuracy—the essence of Adat Shalom.

L'shalom, Rabbi Fred

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