“People Want Meaning and Good Visuals”: an Interview with Jessica Tamar Deutsch

LABA fellow Jessica Tamar Deutsch is a New York-based artist and creator of the Illustrated Pirkei Avot. Her work explores the intersection of ancient tradition and contemporary culture. Here she discusses her life and work with Amy Handelsman. Deutsch will be presenting animation and drawings at LABAlive III on Thursday, May 23rd at 7:30pm. Click

It’s Time to Bring Back a Jewish-Muslim Tradition

Ophir Tal is the 14th Street Y’s shaliach, or “emissary,” tasked with bringing Israeli culture to New York. Here, he discusses why he decided to bring Mimouna, a traditional North African post-Passover interfaith gathering, to the 14th Street Y. For tickets to this year’s Mimouna, click here. The year: 2014. The place: Ashdod, Israel. My

Alone Together for the Big Bang

Current LABA fellow Ari Brand reflects on LABAlive, when he performed excerpts from SCENES FROM CHILDHOOD, a play based on his discovery that his father, the renowned pianist Natan Brand, lived much of his life as a gay man. Natan Brand died of AIDS in 1990. It was a warmer than usual night in the beginning

Jewish But Not Judaic: Alex Weiser’s New Album

Composer Alex Weiser, a current LABA fellow, is also director of Public Programs at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. His new album, and all the days were purple will be released on April 12 by Cantaloupe Music. Weiser set Yiddish and English poems to music to create an absorbing and

Three Jews in a Bar Discussing Death

Yonatan Gutfeld is a current LABA fellow composing a song cycle based on the poems of Ori Bernstein. Misha Shulman is a LABA fellow, playwright and educator studying to be a rabbi. LABA Journal editor Gordon Haber met with Gutfeld and Shulman in a Brooklyn bar to discuss life, death, and vodka. (Gutfeld will perform

Go Down, Moshe: Decoding Negro Spirituals

Editor’s note: Below, LABA fellow Marques Hollie discusses his project Go Down, Moshe, which explores the Passover story in light of American slavery. Hollie uses the term “enslaved people.” He explains: “the term ‘slaves’ allows others to distance themselves from the humanity and personhood each and every one of these people possessed.” The Hebrew Bible

Rereading the Whole Megillah

A lot of Jewish kids get incredibly excited about Purim. But in my own household growing up it wasn’t a big deal. My strongest — and indeed my only — childhood memory of Purim is when Rabbi Frishman of blessed memory read the scroll to us in Hebrew school. As you probably know, Haman is

Gender Fluidity from Day One

The story of Adam and Eve conjures up so many dichotomies, so many grounds for sexism and for feminism, as well as awareness of the fallibility of all humans. It also gives us the first taste of transgender or gender fluidity when the Torah speaks both “male and female” as created in God’s image: So

Interview with a Stranger

By Mariano Wainsztein Born in Argentina and raised in Israel, LABA fellow Mariano Wainsztein is now a New York-based composer. He and his band the Ivankas will perform at LABAlive 2: LIFE + DEATH, Thursday, April 18th, 7.30pm at The Theater at the 14th Street Y. Get your tickets now. The Ivankas current song-cycle is