Dara Solomon, a curator at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, used to ignore trees. Now she sounds like an arborist.

Almost two years ago, she began putting together the current exhibition, "Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought." Gradually, she found herself looking at the world in a new way.

"I started paying much more attention to trees - you know, these trees that dot your life," Solomon said. "I'll notice that one is not doing so well. Or I'll wonder what type of tree it is. And now I think a lot about urban planning, and how it's decided which trees go where, and which neighborhoods have certain trees."

Tu B'Shevat, a minor Jewish holiday meaning the New Year for the Trees, is the inspiration for the museum's multimedia exhibition, which includes about 75 pieces, mostly paintings, sculptures, photographs and videos.

"The holiday was the leaping-off point for us," Solomon said. "It has grown in significance in the last few years, especially in the Bay Area. People are engaging with their Jewish roots - no pun."

The exhibition examines the role of the tree in Jewish tradition, from the Garden of Eden to the Torah commandment bal tashchit (do not destroy) to the Jewish National Fund's campaign urging people to have trees planted in Israel to mark special occasions.

"Do Not Destroy" is eclectic as well as painlessly educational. It notes, for example, that the Torah mentions 11 kinds of trees, with the "grape tree" leading the pack with 43 references.

Walking through the airy galleries with Solomon, one encounters trees in ways that almost defy the imagination.

For instance, "Blackfield," a pygmy forest of stainless-steel plant sculptures, contains about 5,000 tiny pieces on a blanket of sand. They are black and foreboding until a visitor circles the 12-foot-wide field and discovers an explosion of colors on the other side.

"You can look at this forever," Solomon said. "From the front it's sort of ominous. Then you walk around and it comes alive. It's a showstopper."

It took Zadok Ben-David a week to install his field, one of more than 20 works loaned by artists in the first part of the exhibition, which is an international survey of trees in contemporary art.

Trees in Israel

Photographer Tal Shochat cleaned every branch and leaf before shooting five fruit trees that grow in Israel - peach, almond, pomegranate, apple and persimmon - at their peak of ripeness against a black background. Gabriela Albergaria, with the help of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, found an ailing pittosporum in Golden Gate Park and assembled the cut parts into a huge mended tree, with screws, braces and thread-wrapped limbs.

In an especially moving work, Jason Lazarus made a 16-minute video showing the top of the tree that Anne Frank gazed at while hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II. It includes the sounds she would have heard, such as footsteps, cars, church bells and children playing.

"It's a really poetic piece," Solomon said. "This tree stood witness to history."

The second part of the exhibition, the Dorothy Saxe Invitational, showcases the work of more than 50 artists invited to create pieces, all for sale, incorporating reclaimed wood. The results are ingenious and remarkably varied. There are primitive eating utensils fashioned from pieces of wood found on a Norwegian island; "Fauxliage," a branch using page fragments from "Silent Spring," Rachel Carson's seminal book on pesticides; and a video by an artist who roamed the streets of Paris singing "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree."

Jewish ritual

The Invitational occurs every few years and focuses on a Jewish ritual, object or concept. "What is so amazing is the range of responses," Solomon said. "Everything from sculpture to a chandelier to a drawing in ash, from roots the artist burned."

"Nomadic Grove," the third component of the exhibition, is situated in Jessie Square in front of the museum, and consists of colorful planters filled with trees. Created by Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, the exhibit employs Yoko Ono's idea of a "Wish Tree," allowing people to scribble their desires on cards and attach them to branches.

They ranged from "Peace for all" to "I wish for the 49ers to win the Super Bowl."

Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought: Inside exhibition through May 28. "Nomadic Grove" in Jessie Square through Oct. 2. Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., S.F. (415) 655-7800. thecjm.org.

Former San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Patricia Yollin is a freelance writer and editor. datebookletters@sfchronicle.com