About the Creators

Meet Rachael Brooke Goren
Founder & Artist, Eclectic Judaica

I grew up in suburban Philadelphia, where my kindergarten teacher expressed concern that I did not color inside the lines.

Apparently, that stuck.

I graduated from Brandeis University, where I studied Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Women’s Studies, earned a Master of Public Health from UMass Amherst, and later completed my doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University New England.

My work history is about as eclectic as my menorahs. When I’m not creating in my home art studio, I work as a clinical psychologist. I also love spending time with my wife, our two kids, and our Bernedoodle, Scout, who is completely convinced that he is a human member of the family. I’m happiest gardening, making things, wandering somewhere beautiful, eating something delicious, and generally finding reasons not to take life too seriously.

Eclectic Judaica grew out of my love of making things, reimagining things, and finding possibility in materials that might otherwise be overlooked. I love color, humor, nostalgia, Jewish tradition, and the idea that meaningful Judaica does not have to look one particular way.

Creating is a messy and sometimes emotional process, with plenty of trial and error, unexpected turns, and glitter absolutely everywhere.

Hope is fundamental to why I create. I believe we can make a better world, and I believe that something being broken, discarded, torn, outdated, or imperfect does not mean it has lost its value. Sometimes it just needs to be seen differently.

That idea is at the heart of Eclectic Judaica: taking what already exists and turning it into something joyful, meaningful, useful, beautiful, and entirely its own.

Tradition doesn’t have to be beige.

 

 

 

Junior Artists & Creators