This is a very interesting presentation. A brief history would provide more background, what this project is about and the growth of the creator of this piece.
"Hanan HarcholÂ’s essay in Reform Judaism Magazine that describes HarcholÂ’s personal journey that led to this project.
Reform Judaism Magazine - Jewish Journeys: Lost & Found?An Animator's Tale
This series of animations represents my personal journey in a complicated relationship with Judaism. I spent my life gravitating towards, and making, narrative art that explores the human condition from a psychological, philosophical, and existential perspective. While Judaism offers thousands of years of wisdom on the human condition, I avoided it as a source, because of what I perceived to be a preachy and sometimes judgmental tone.
Then, in 2009, I was commissioned to create a short artistic animation that interpreted the eating of bitter herbs during Passover. As part of the project, I was mandated to participate in a monthly Jewish study group and, to my surprise, I discovered that the human themes we were discussing and wrestling with in the study group were precisely the kind I had always been exploring in my personal artmaking. Even the process itself of sitting around a table, debating and wrestling with these human concepts (a process I did regularly with my friends and in my artmaking) proved to be a fundamental part of the Jewish study and learning process...."
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Further, the author states, "following in my parents’ footsteps, I grew up anti-religious. My father deemed religion “a waste of time,” an attitude he’d inherited from his father, who rejected the faith of his Orthodox parents at age 20, when he became a socialist Zionist and helped found a kibbutz in then Palestine. Still, whenever my father wanted to prove a point, he’d tell us a Torah story and argue, “Even in the Bible, it says….”
It wasn’t until I was 39, married, and working as a high school art teacher that my relationship to Judaism changed. A friend told me about a project seeking Jewish artists. I submitted my animations and was selected as one of 11 contemporary video artists to create a short film interpreting segments of the haggadah for “Projecting Freedom: Cinematic Interpretations of the Haggadah.” Though I was initially hesitant to devote a great deal of time to the year-long project, two aspects appealed to me: the chance to make new work (I hadn’t produced any in nearly a year), and the assurance of artistic freedom. So I accepted.
There was one catch, however. The artists had to attend monthly Passover-related text study sessions, led by the projectÂ’s creator, Rabbi Leon Morris, who directed the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.
To my surprise, these sessions immersed us in deep conversations about the human condition, psychology, and philosophy—topics I’d never before associated with Judaism, and precisely the same issues I had been exploring in my artmaking. I became increasingly drawn to Jewish text study and Rabbi Morris’ compassionate approach to Judaism, which reminded me of the meaningful experiences I’d had at Mrs. Prince’s seder table...."
Reform Judaism Magazine - Jewish Journeys: Lost & Found?An Animator's Tale
