Yitzy Kasowitz introduces a Jewish twist to the traditional Lego set.
By IDO KENANJewish Lego(photo credit: JBRICK)
Yitzy Kasowitz of Minnesota has turned every Jewish Lego-enthusiasts dream of having a custom-made Jewish-themed Lego set into a reality, turning his passion and small scale project into a small business. He's raised funding for JBrick through crowd-sourcing on Jewcer, an online platform for Jewish crowdfunding; With a goal of $20,000 in sight, he's raised a little over $5000 thus far.JBrick sells Lego sets at a retail price of about $40 a box. Sets can be found featuring brand-new, original Lego blocks which can be constructed into a dreidel, a tzedakah box, a menorah, an IDF soldier, or a Passover Seder plate.Kasowitz already has the support of The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik, who posted on her official Facebook page: "Am I dreaming? Jewish-themed Lego sets? I can get behind this Jewcer campaign 1000% and can't wait for my incentives to come: an IDF Lego man and a Lego tzedakah box! (there's also a Lego Seder plate!)."JBrick only uses original Lego pieces - yet the original building-block company, who does not sell many of its parts in bulk, does not cooperate with Kasowitz on his projects. In order to maintain the authenticity and quality of his product, the JBrick founder resorts to buying existing Lego sets and deconstructing them for their parts."ll find most of my pieces online and around the world," Kasowitz said. "It'll be marked up a little bit, and then I'll take it and I have to mark it up a little bit myself."Once he reaches his fundraising goal, Kasowitz plans on creating more large-scale sets, in the form of the Kotel, Noah's Ark, and Beit Hamikdash.
