DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711220361

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   84 lines

THE MAKING OF A MITZVAH AN ALMOST EX-LAWYER HONORS FAMILY WITH A GIFT OF ANTIQUITY.

Sometimes, a life's turning point might as well be marked with a big, flashing neon sign.

Today, Mark Solberg's will be marked by a small ceremony at Temple Israel on Granby Street to dedicate a handsome wood case holding priceless antiquities of Jewish history.

A jug, a saucer lamp, a cooking pot and seven coins, some items 4,000 years old, form the exhibit. Solberg will dedicate it to his late father, Albert ``Betz'' Solberg; his late sister, Karen; and his mother, Tam, still living on Thole Street.

Solberg, 52, passionate and unconventional, is a Federal Communications Commission lawyer in Washington who helps regulate children's programming.

Within the past two years, Solberg set events in motion for both a change in careers and the creation of this exhibit. He resolved to leave the law for, of all things, massage therapy. About the same time, he decided that he wanted to contribute somehow to his mother's synagogue in his hometown and also make a gesture for his father and sister.

``Lots of people who go to this temple,'' Solberg said, and paused for a long moment to struggle with his feelings, ``knew my sister and father. And I believe every loving thought of someone who is gone is a message straight to God.''

In Judaism, such an act of goodwill or charity is called a mitzvah. Solberg's memorial contribution is a unique mitzvah for Temple Israel.

Rabbi Michael Panitz said he has seen no other synagogue with Jewish artifacts of this age.

``These represent the last episodes of Jewish independence before modern times,'' Panitz said. ``These coins, for instance, symbolize something that is a very deep, significant part of our history, but which has modern meaning as well.

``It showcases a part of our heritage we never get to see, much less handle.''

Solberg has collected the items in several journeys to the Mideast, learning through trial and error how to distinguish genuine articles from fakes, and developing a sense of what mattered to him.

``It's the emotional power of these that attracts me, not any commercial value,'' he said. ``I always try to understand where they're from, although most of the time you're lucky to get any story at all.''

The pottery consists of everyday items. The jug is from about 2,000 B.C., the saucer lamp from 900 to 600 B.C., and the cooking pot from the first or second century A.D.

Panitz, who used the lamp for a class in the temple, said household articles help connect us to people who lived in historic times but were much like us.

``They are very real people,'' Panitz said. ``Maybe they believed in one god in a world of idols, and that is the history we tell of them, but they still had to cook dinner.

``It just puts everything in perspective.''

The coins, tiny discs of bronze and silver, provide more detailed history. They were struck 1,800 to 2,100 years ago, in the years when Jews established short-lived independent nations in the Middle East. A few are from the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the years 133-135 A.D., when Jews rose up against the Roman Empire, and even the act of minting coins was considered rebellion.

They are marked with palm trees, dates and musical instruments and inscribed with Hebrew letters. Solberg is intimately familiar with them, quickly able to date a coin to specific years of the Jewish rebellion.

He designed the case they're displayed in, including a tilted mirror beneath the coins to show both sides. Bud Huelsberg, a Norfolk craftsman, built the case.

Having made this gesture, Solberg will retire at the end of the year from the FCC and leave the law behind entirely. He has earned a certificate in massage therapy, and he intends to move to a warm East Coast city and start a new life.

``I'm tired of fighting with people for a living,'' Solberg said. ``I'll set up a table and become an itinerant massage therapist.

``I'll read a lot, and I'll wait for the tourists to come by, and I'll give massages. It's a portable skill I can take anywhere in the world.''

What does it mean to him to have his collection housed in a temple? Solberg is characteristically blunt, and half-humorous: ``I'm bribing God.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

Motoya Nakamura/The Virginian-Pilot

Mark Solberg...

Solberg donated his collection...

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