Hi, we are Ruth and Rebecca. We met at a Baby & Me class at the Silver Lake JCC—two designers and Jewish mothers who bonded over new parenthood and shared loss. Having both lost our fathers, we connected through humor and honesty, jokingly calling ourselves “The Dead Dads Club.” 

Ruth’s father, Richard Siegel, authored The Jewish Catalogue, the influential 1970s DIY guide that reimagined Jewish life as creative and home-centered. Combined with Rebecca’s creative spirit, we carry forward a shared legacy: honoring Jewish tradition by creatively reimagining it for today.

We see how hard it is for people, especially our millennial friends losing their parents to navigate grief without tools or tradition. Judaism offers an incredible roadmap for mourning, but most people don’t know where to start.

When we searched for something as simple as a yahrzeit candle, everything on the market looked like a repurposed gefilte fish jar. Plastic. paraffin. Zero soul.

So we designed our own to be elegant, sustainable, rooted in tradition and welcoming to all. We love the concept of “Hiddur Mitzvah” elevating the mundane into a thing of beauty, intention, depth. We hope you will join us in our upcoming Kickstarter to make this ritual object accessible and approachable for Jews and non-Jews alike and to bring meaning and elegance into life’s hardest seasons.