Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Fern Allen

Modern sounds of Hanukka find a home on YouTube

Fern Allen — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:45:38 +0000

These days, if you want to hear who is spreading the Hanukkah message to the masses, first light your menorah, and then click on YouTube. The Hanukka season seems to be a popular time for a flurry of Jewish holiday YouTube videos. Although YouTube Hanukka clips may not be the epitome of high video art, they [...]

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Papercuts pay homage to synagogues torched in WWII

Fern Allen — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 03:11:40 +0000

David Fisher’s papercut reproductions of wooden synagogues burned down by the Nazis during the Holocaust provide only a shimmer of the structures’ once-breathtaking magnificence. But for the Jerusalem graphic artist, they represent a deeply personal way to honor these architectural wonders. “As the son of a survivor, I sought a way in which I could create [...]

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Stitching the Torah’s precepts together

Fern Allen — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:57:02 +0000

For artist Andi Arnovitz, sewing always had been an integral part of her upbringing. So it was natural for her to take essential principles of the Torah, such as the commandment to be charitable, and create vibrant artistic garments made – literally – from traditional Jewish texts. Her “Vest of the Giver of Charity”, for [...]

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Dvar Omanut: All who are hungry, come and eat – When art imitates life

Fern Allen — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:35:00 +0000

It’s one of Judaism’s best-known slogans, with its perennial cry for social justice and redemption: the haggadah’s HaLachma Anya passage – “This is the bread of affliction our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. All who are hungry come and eat”. For centuries, haggadah illuminators have found this ancient declaration – which intertwines generosity [...]

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Dvar Omanut: Redrawing a Tale of Two Diasporas

Fern Allen — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:20:45 +0000

Flip through artist Eliyahu Sidi’s Scroll of Esther, and you’ll soon realize that you are absorbing two stories in one – the text of the ancient Purim plot detailing Queen Esther’s brave actions to thwart Haman’s plan to destroy the Jews, interwoven within a colorful, humorous storyboard of the Nazi scheme to decimate European Jewry. [...]

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