- Craft
- Industrial-designed modern Judaica
Modern Mensch started with a ketubah problem. Planning their 2013 wedding, Jordan and Jessica Diatlo wanted a marriage contract that suited their modern taste and kept finding only traditional-looking prints. In 2015, with Jessica pregnant and Jordan thinking about how to raise a Jewish child in an interfaith family, the couple started the Modern Mensch Instagram account to spotlight good design in Jewish culture.
Jordan is an industrial designer with more than 20 years of experience and the founder of Leadoff Studio, a design firm in Queens, New York, whose work for clients has won Red Dot, Core77 and Fast Company Innovation by Design awards. Every Modern Mensch product and graphic is designed there.
The first piece was a menorah. Rather than one that lives in a box eleven months a year, Jordan drew the Nosh Menorah to be modern and beautiful enough to keep out all year, with or without candles. Mezuzahs and Shabbat candle holders followed, in brass, chrome, rose gold and rainbow finishes. In 2023 the rainbow Sunrise Sunset mezuzah became the shop's biggest seller, which Jordan told Jewish Insider says "here I am, I'm Jewish."
Good to know
- Designed byLeadoff Studio, Jordan Diatlo's industrial design firm in Queens, New York
- Studio honorsRed Dot, Core77 and Fast Company Innovation by Design awards (Leadoff Studio client work)
- Featured inJewish Insider, December 2023
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