By Barrett Holman Leak
SAN DIEGO — There is a game called “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” a variant on the theory that a person is connected to anyone else within six degrees of separation.
After watching, with the rest of the world, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles win her 10th career medal, and show a beautiful now famous goat necklace, I wondered who was helping her tell her story. I played a version of the game, calling it “Six Degrees of Simone Biles” in hopes that I would connect to her jeweler. It was a great success.
Someone in the Jewish community here in San Diego knew someone else in our community who is the sister of the jeweler. In less than 15 minutes I had a name and telephone number and was in touch with jeweler Janet Heller for an interview.
From the time she was a child in San Diego, Heller was able to pursue working with a passion she has for jewelry. As an adult, Heller began working with textile design making belts and continued after moving to Los Angeles. Over the next few years, she took an entrepreneurial approach and opened her own shop. She founded and operates her own business, Janet Heller Fine Jewelry, specializing in custom pieces. She doesn’t consider herself and artisan but rather a person with the ability to transform vision into story through jewelry, with meticulous skill and precision.
It was through her daughter, who works with her, that she connected with Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles. She had fashioned jewelry for her daughter’s friends, Olympic long jump athlete Tara Davis-Woodhall and her husband Paralympic bronze medalist sprinter, Hunter Woodhall. Simone Biles saw the Olympic rings necklace Heller had created and asked Tara to put her in touch with Heller.
From there, herstory was made. Heller, who describes herself as meticulous and detailed, worked with Simone Biles for five weeks to create a unique piece inspired by Biles. The goat necklace is encrusted with 546 diamonds set in white gold.
All forms of media outlets and fans worldwide are abuzz about it, surprised and delighted about the sparkling farm animal that symbolizes discipline, perseverance, hard work, and eventual success. While the necklace depicts a little goat, the joke is that the initials GOAT stand for “Greatest of All Time,” which in the world of women’s gymnastics, Simone Biles certainly is.
If you would like Janet Heller to tell your story through beautiful custom jewelry made by her or want to see pieces she has done, here is her contact information: Email: janet@janethellerfinejewelry.com; Phone: (818) 974-2442; Website: www.janethellerfinejewelry.com; Instagram: @janethellerfinejewelry; TikTok: @janethellerfinejewelry
Janet Heller’s grandfather and his siblings left Novogrudok, Poland, in 1939 just before The Holocaust. They went first to went first to Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) on the African continent, then to South Africa. before immigrating to San Diego.
It was fortunate that family members left Novogrudok when they did.
After the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in August 1939, Eastern Poland, including Novogrudok, was occupied by the Soviet military. The Soviet occupation lasted from September 1939 until June 1941. During this time, the Soviets implemented their regime, which included the nationalization of industries and the suppression of political dissidents through death or deportation to prisons in Siberia or other parts of the Soviet Union.
In June 1941, Nazi, Germany invaded Russian territory in Operation Barbarossa, Novogrudok was quickly occupied by Nazi Germany. Under Nazi rule, the Jewish community in Novogrudok suffered genocide. The Nazis established a ghetto in the town, confining the Jewish population in deplorable conditions.
In 1942, the Nazis carried out mass executions of Jews from the Novogrudok ghetto. Thousands were killed in these massacres. Some Jews from Novogrudok escaped and joined resistance groups in the forests, holding off the Nazis. Then the Soviets retook the territory in 1944, The Red Army recaptured Novogrudok during the Soviet advance into Eastern Europe.
Following the war, Novogrudok became part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Belarus). The Jewish population had been nearly destroyed. Belarus remained under Soviet rule until August 25, 1991.
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Barrett Holman Leak is an author, educator, and community organizer