Esther Baruch learned how to knit from her mother, who learned from her mother before her. Practicing the craft, Baruch feels a deep emotional connection to her female ancestors. Her connection to Israel is just as strong, both as a Zionist and because she has relatives who live there.
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 of last year, Baruch, a member of Santa Rosa’s Congregation Beth Ami, contemplated how she could help. While she was knitting a teddy bear for a friend coping with depression, an idea hatched: Why not make teddy bears for kids traumatized and orphaned in the attack?
“They’re comforting,” Baruch, making a hugging motion as if to demonstrate a child hugging a teddy bear, told J. “Kids go around with all kinds of comfort items, blankies and dollies, but it seems like a teddy bear is just the classic comfort object.”
On Dec. 22, a group of 10 attended the first teddy-bear-making session organized by Baruch. Sitting in a circle in a Beth Ami classroom were nine women and one girl. Their ages ranged from 14 to “so old I can’t remember when I started knitting,” as one woman put it.
Baruch handed out packets of step-by-step instructions for making the little bears, 2 feet tall each. There was yarn aplenty and in a variety of colors. The group started working on the bears in pieces, making loops and tying knots while working on a bear’s foot or arm.
Susan Morabito arrived late after spending the morning at her church. The previous day, she had spent several hours making a purple bear with white polka-dots (unstuffed) that she showed the group. She used fabric stuffing to complete her creation.
Morabito learned sewing, crocheting and knitting from her mother — who made all of her and her siblings’ clothes — when she was a child.
“I’ve enjoyed making these little bears,” Morabito said, “And I’ve enjoyed making clothes and just everything.… Whatever’s creative it’s just fun to do.”
In the past, Morabito has knit teddy bears and dropped them off at police and fire stations so that first responders can give them to children in traumatic or otherwise difficult situations.
“That’s the whole idea — giving comfort,” Morabito said, “just giving them something small, something they can hold onto. So that’s what this project is: to comfort children, to comfort parents and just show them love.”
People in the group chatted and laughed together but also talked about what inspired them to make the teddy bears.
“I think stuffed animals make a difference to kids,” said Bonnie Ferber Hart.
Barbara Tomin said she’s “of the deep belief that everyone needs a teddy bear.”
The first five bears that they complete will go to a family close to one of Baruch’s cousins that is raising twins whose parents were killed on Oct. 7. The same cousin works as a nurse at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital and will help distribute more teddy bears to children in need of comfort there.
Asked why she wants to help children affected by the war, Morabito said: “To be good to children, to show love. It’s important because it’s the work of God. That’s what we do, that’s what we do in our lives.”