A Jewish Identity exploration project combining traditional photographs with writings from 38 volunteers spending a year in Israel. Delving into the subject of what a Jewish Identity means to the current youth generation in the new millennium. Available on blurb.
Excerpts from the Project
Project Description:
A collection of 38 portraits that explore the meaning of post-millennial Jewish Identity. The subjects are all North American Jews who were currently participating as volunteers on the ten-month leadership and service program OTZMA 2009/2010 in Israel. These participant were a sampling of young Jewish adults from across America, all living in Israel and all forced to confront a piece, no matter how minuscule, of the Jewish experience. I wanted to showcase the individuals’ inner dialogues; and so I asked each participant to submit to pose before my camera and write a statement answering my query, "What does your Jewish Identity mean to you?"
Being in Israel forced upon this group of Jewish young adults a sense of self-awareness of their proverbial “Jewish-ness.” This identity, a shared marker in the cultural DNA, fascinated me. On OTZMA they were forced to confront the concept of Jewish identity in a country where there wasn't Christmas Break, but rather Pesach Break; and Shabbat was a weekly reality, whether you wanted it or not.
Yet they were thirty-eight diverse individuals all coming into the situtation with varying levels of Judaic knowledge, religious, cultural, and historical, as well as a varying of degrees of religiosity. A portrait of this group, one that would show the development of the collective Jewish identity, could not be captured in a mere photograph. Although a collection of their likenesses would be an interesting comparison and a literal portrait of the participants, I strove for something deeper.
The participants wrote their answers to my query in their own hand, without translation and with free reign to draw and write whatever they needed to express their answer. The end result of this became not just a snapshot of these volunteers but also of their Jewish identities. It is touching, humorous, at times poignant, and all in all an intimate look into the future of American Jewry.
