Co-founders Julie Weitz and Jill Spector launched Tzitzit Project in 2021 with the help of an expert panel of Jewish leaders and educators who engaged in conversations about the practical and spiritual experiences of wearing tzitzit as women, trans, and non-binary Jews. From these conversations, Julie and Jill developed tzitzit prototypes for a select group of folx to test out. The testers’ feedback helped shape Tzitzit Project’s debut designs.

Tzitzit for every body.

Making it

Julie  and Jill are two Ashkenazi cis-women artists based in Los Angeles who come from a long line of tailors, cutters, and menders. Julie is an interdisciplinary artist whose narrative-based works include live and multimedia performances, video, photography, drawing, and installation. Jill is an artist and independent art worker whose practice encompasses artmaking, teaching, design, and collaboration.

The two artist have been collaborating since 2019 on costumes for Julie’s My Golem project. After Julie wore a tallit katan designed for one of her performances, she was inspired to practice wearing tzitzit in real life (and not just as the golem). But she discovered that there were no tzitzit available to satisfy her taste and fit. So, Julie and Jill initiated a conversation about making a unique tzitzit and from there, the two began exploring how tzitzit designs could be expanded upon to inspire more inclusive expressions of Jewish spiritual practice. The artists are ecstatic to open up their design practice to their communities with Tzitzit Project.

A video featuring Julie and Jill in the process of making their tzitzit prototypes.

Testing it

Tzitzit Project worked with an expert panel of women, trans, and non-binary Jewish leaders and educators to test our tzitzit prototypes. Our testers’ feedback helped us refine our tzitzit designs, which we are so excited to offer to you.

  • Hadar Cohen (she/her), founder of the mystical school Malchut, is an Arab Jewish feminist healer, multi-media artist, and educator living in Los Angeles.

  • Xava De Cordova (she/her) is the co-host of "Xai, How are You?", the world's first queer Talmud podcast and co-Rosh Yeshiva of Shel Maala, an online-first queer yeshiva.

  • Rebekah Erev (they/them) is an artist and a kohenet/Hebrew priestexx, a feminist, queer, disabled dream worker, healer, activist and teacher and founder of the Queer Mikveh Project and co-creator of the Jewish planner, Dreaming of the World to Come.

  • Holly Howell (she/they) is a queer, fat, disabled, creative jewitch living in Ventura, CA.

  • Binya Kóatz (she/Her) is an organizer of political and cultural diaspora on Ohlone Land in the Bay, from Lenape land in the Old Country of Queens NYC. Along with Xava, she is co-Rosh Yeshiva Shel Maala, an online-first queer yeshiva. Binya co-wrote our Tzitzit Project Ritual Guide.

  • Nomy Lamm (they/them) is a lifelong multi-media artist, dedicated to nurturing creative process in themselves and their community. Along with Rebekah, they are the co-creator of the Jewish planner, Dreaming of the World to Come. Nomy also co-wrote our Tzitzit Project Ritual Guide.

  • Batya Levine (they/them) uses song as a tool for cultivating healing and resilience in their work as a communal song leader, shaliach tzibur (Jewish prayer leader) and cultural organizer.

  • Dori Midnight (she/her) is a community healing practitioner, ritual artist, writer, and deep listener oriented towards healing and liberation.

  • Marval A Rex is a LA-based performance artist, actor, curator and cultural producer.

  • Liana Wertman (she/her) is the founder and executive director of The Torah Studio and loves yarn, coffee and her home city, Los Angeles.

Our Testers

  • Silas Clish (he/him) has been developing and designing websites, marketing campaigns, and social media strategies for the last 6 years and has loved every minute of it. Currently he is the web designer of tzitzitproject.com.

  • Channing Hansen is a polymath. He manages to simultaneously convey both a down-home appreciation of craft and staggering wonder at advances in technology, and he frequently melds the two in his videos, performances, sculptures and paintings. Channing hand-spins the wool we use to tie our tzitzit.

  • Sasha Perry (they/ them) is a documentary editor with over a decade of experience in TV and film. Sasha films, photographs, and edits content for Tzitzit Project.

  • Sol Weiss (they/them) is a white, nonbinary trans artist and organizer. Sol illustrated our Tzitzit Project Ritual Guide.

Our Support Team