MAS Designs Jewelry

MAS Designs is handmade Jewish charm jewelry from Maxine Schwartz, whose first red string bracelets raised $35,000 in six weeks for families in need.

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Based: New York
Since: 2014
Craft: Handmade Hebrew charm jewelry

MAS Designs is meaningful Jewish jewelry from Maxine Schwartz, a former investment banker and beauty-industry executive. Originally from South Africa and raised in New York, she started the brand in the summer of 2014, when she made her own version of the Kabbalah red string bracelet as a gift. It turned into a fundraiser that raised $35,000 in six weeks to benefit struggling families during the war in the Middle East, and that mix of craft and cause became the brand.

Her charms are handcrafted in the USA and are deliberately a little imperfect, a nod to the imperfections in all of us. At ModernTribe the pieces come in sterling silver or 24k gold vermeil with crystal accents: rustic Ahava, Star of David, hamsa and evil eye necklaces, plus challah pendants. The cause thread continues too, with a silk bracelet whose sales went to Ukraine relief.