|
SHENKAR
COLLEGE
No Confusion
Honoring
Morris And Defusco
By Tim Boxer
 OBERT
LEE MORRIS, known for his designer jewelry, is a child of the
world. His Jewish father, Jack, of Chicago, was a pilot in
the Air Force and moved often to different locations. His mother Sandy
is a Southern Baptist.
Robert was born in
Nuremberg where his father was a witness at the Nazi war crimes
trial.
But he wasn’t raised
there for long. Getting uprooted all the time meant he was in
constant struggle with his identity.
“I went to the
synagogue on Saturday, Bible school on Sunday and the psychiatrist
on Monday,” he said.
I laughed, but he said it
was true: “I was confused.”
There was no confusion on
the part of Nahum G. Shar, president of the American
Committee for Shenkar College in Israel. Shar presented Morris
with the organization’s international jewelry design award at a
dinner at the United Nations.
Morris was the first
designer to open a store in Soho, New York, in 1978. His jewelry
gallery Artwear is known around the globe, earning him a
reputation as the father of designer jewelry. He has worked with
such fashion luminaries as Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Karl
Lagerfeld and Anne Klein among others.
Shar also had an award
for Deborah L. Defusco, head of merchandising at Mimi
Maternity of Philadelphia. Unlike Morris, who’s never been to
Israel, Defusco visited with her mother Geri.
She also became so
enamored of the classes in engineering and design at Shenkar
College in Ramat Gan that she started sponsoring scholarships for
students who can’t afford the tuition.
Defusco pointed out that
she’s not Jewish or Italian but German/Polish/Irish. In
accepting the international merchandising award she quipped, “This
is the bat mitzvah I never had.”
|
