South Hills Jewish teen creates seder plates, one brick at a time
“I did a series during COVID about Passover Legos. I did a Dead Sea model and a piece of matzah and things like that. I think that’s where the seder thing came from.”
Despite what you might read in your Haggadah this Passover, there are still some Jews who don’t mind building with bricks.
Take Henry Ginsburg. The Upper St. Clair High School senior has built with Legos since the age of 4 when he was first given a box of the colorful bricks from his grandmother’s storage unit that used to belong to his father. Now 18, he’s turned his passion for Legos into a business, building replicas of people’s homes out of the blocks.
This year, when he’s not busy with school, making plans for college or revising his business plans for “Henry’s Lego Home Building,” he’s even created an opportunity to collect some tzedakah for a South Hills nonprofit.
Ginsburg has been hard at work over the last several weeks selling a custom-designed Lego seder plate that is food-safe and fully functionable. He is donating all proceeds from the sale to SHIM (South Hills Interfaith Movement), an organization helping to reduce the effects of suburban poverty among the working poor, unemployed, families, single parents, senior citizens, women and the high concentration of refugee families in its service area.
Henry’s Lego Home Building business began during COVID-19, he explained.
“In eighth grade, during COVID, I built a model of my house, and I was pretty proud of it,” he recalled. “I thought it turned out pretty cool. Then I built a model of Fallingwater, and then I had to do a project from the IB [International Baccalaureate] program at my school and it was the culminating project. I chose to start a business.”
He’s working on his 15th house. He markets them online with various levels of customization, from a simple exterior build to models with full interiors, lawns and even options to include people and pets.
His business model, he explained, is built around his schedule, so if school is too busy or life too demanding he takes a pause.
“I control demand based on how much I can take at once balancing school. If I can’t take on anything, I’ll stop advertising,” he explained. “The moment I advertise, I normally end up getting some sales. It’s pretty popular.”
The concept of creating a seder plate, he said, is about two years old, and probably his dad’s idea, Ginsburg said.
“I had done Jewish things before,” he said. “I did a series during COVID about Passover Legos. I did a Dead Sea model and a piece of matzah and things like that. I think that’s where the seder thing came from.”
Ginsburg decided he wanted to create something more than a simple seder plate replica — he wanted it to be usable. His original design, he explained, didn’t work because food got into the cracks between the Lego pieces. After some thought and a conversation with his father, the budding designer came upon an idea that worked.
“I ended up using a specific Lego piece that is more like a cup. So, the food doesn’t get into the cracks,” he said.
His mother helped, suggesting changing the original colors — blue, white and yellow with the word “Pesach” on it — to the colors of the rainbow.
And, like a typical seder plate, Ginsburg wanted to include pictures of the food in each space.
Getting the images onto the plates proved more difficult than he anticipated, though.
“That was a challenge,” he said. “I hadn’t done stickers, especially at this scale before, so I ordered one of those Cricut Machines so I can just cut them out. It’s definitely been a learning experience how to make them.”
In the end, those who buy one of Ginsburg’s seder plates will receive a fully functioning Lego kit ready to be built and used for the holiday.
The idea of the user actually piecing together kits purchased from Ginsburg is something that differentiates him from others selling Lego designs online.
“A lot of other folks glue their models,” he said.
That takes away from the joy, he said, and it increases the costs of shipping. The low overhead allows him to ship nationwide. He’s already sent products to California, Georgia, Maine and Massachusetts.
To ensure people will be able to construct the items they’ve purchased, Ginsburg includes custom-designed instructions he created using free software.
Like most of the skills required to run his business — creating a strategic plan, developing a website using one of the popular website builders, deciding when and how to advertise — Ginsburg taught himself the design program.
Ever the businessman, he had two goals with the seder plates: He wanted to gain some brand recognition and he wanted to make something that would have a positive impact on the world,
The Lego entrepreneur sold 70 plates before cutting off orders to ensure he would have the chance to get the plates out by Passover. He said he’ll most likely be able to donate about $1,000 to SHIM.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “I’m happy with that number.”
Next year, he said, he’ll likely use different marketing tactics to reach people and maybe take the idea nationwide.
This holiday season he’ll use approximately 12,000 Lego bricks for the seder plates. And that is something even a Pharoah with a hardened heart can’t stop. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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