Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Friday, July 22, 2016

Join us tomorrow evening, Saturday, July 23rd, at 7:30 PM, for the first of two summer movie nights at Adas Emuno. Our mini-film festival, curated by Adas Emuno President, Prof. Lance Strate, who will lead a discussion following the screenings, is on the theme of the counterculture of the 60s and 70s, art and creativity, and the democratizing trend that continue to have a major effect on us to this day. There is some mature content, so parental discretion is advised.

Our first screening will feature Drop City: A New Documentary by Joan Grossman and Tom McCourt.

For more about the film, visit the website: <http://www.dropcitydoc.com>.

Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served.

The second part of our mini-festival will be in two weeks, Saturday, August 6th, when we screen the documentary, !Women, Art, Revolution. More on that later...

Monday, May 16, 2016

What's Your Metaphor?

From the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

A Message From Our President

Dr. Lance Strate

What's Your Metaphor?

What's your metaphor for our congregation? What would you say if I asked you to fill in the blank in the following statement: "Adas Emuno is like…"

Would you say that it's an obligation to fulfill, like paying your taxes? A tradition to honor, out of respect to parents and grandparents? A chore, like doing the laundry, shopping, taking out the trash? A box to check off, like filling out a form?

Would you say that it's like going to work, or going to school? A social activity, like going to a party, or a wedding or bar or bat mitzvah? Or a funeral? An entertainment, like going to the movies, or a show?

What does Adas Emuno mean to you?

And what can Adas Emuno mean to you?

Let me suggest one answer: A source of inspiration.

Inspiration has a spiritual connection, of course. In the past, people believed inspiration came from outside of themselves, from a divine source. The word inspire has Latin roots, the original meaning being to breathe into. You may recall that the Torah describes God's creation of Adam as follows: "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). In this sense, the opposite of inspire is expire.

For the most part, we don't have to take the meaning of inspire literally nowadays, which means that it actually is a subtle metaphor for anything that we consider to be a breath of fresh air, and a spur to creative thinking. And we certainly can recognize the importance of religion and spirituality for the arts. So much of the history of painting, sculpture, and music is dominated by depictions and expressions of the divine, the transcendent, and spiritual communion. The Torah, Tanach, and Bible is the basis of much of western literature. Theater and dance has its roots in ritual drama.

Thinking of individuals who found inspiration for creative expression through Judaism, here are a few of the many names that might come to mind: J. J. Abrams, Woody Allen, Marc Chagall, Leonard Cohen, E. L. Doctorow, Will Eisner, Nora Ephron, Lillian Hellman, Franz Kafka, Jack Kirby, Stanley Kubrick, Emma Lazarus, Stan Lee, Felix Mendelssohn, Amos Oz, Cynthia Ozick, Phillip Roth, Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, Art Spiegelman, Steven Spielberg, Gertrude Stein, and the list goes on and on.

But inspiration is not limited to those fields of human endeavor that we designate as the arts. There are creative possibilities in all of our activities, an art to bowling, and automotive repair, and accounting, and going to the supermarket. And every activity can benefit from a source of inspiration. This is especially true when it comes to finding solutions to whatever problems may plague us, when we are looking for a source of inspiration for creative problem-solving.

What our congregation offers is a way to step out of the box of everyday life, and into an experience of something different and unbounded. Out of the pressure of rushing here and there and always living in the present moment, and into an experience that is timeless and potentially transcendent. Out of the constant barrage of noise and distraction, and into an experience of quiet meditation and mindfulness. Out of the routines that deaden the mind and dull the senses, and into an experience that can give us a new sense of openness, that can rejuvenate, and elevate.

If you are looking for a source of inspiration, have you tried to find it at Adas Emuno?

And whether you have or have not, what is your metaphor for our congregation? Let us know!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Come Join Our New Tot Mitzvah Program!

Announcing our new Adas Emuno Religious School program for children of pre-school age:

The program is free, so spread the word!

Friday, September 27, 2013

Sukkot Family Day

Here are some photographs from this past Sunday's Family Day for the Adas Emuno Religious School, held in conjunction with the 8-day Festival of Sukkot.

There were art projects:

And visits to our decorated Sukkah:

And a very special gardening project, planting bulbs for the promise of a flower-filled springtime:

The flower beds between our Temple and Religious School that have longed lain fallow are now full of life thanks to our students and the adult volunteers who worked with them.

Our thanks to everyone who lent a hand or thumb, green or otherwise, to keeping Adas Emuno beautiful this Sukkot holiday!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Adas Emuno's Got Talent!

If you know anything about our congregation, you know that we have some very talented members, especially among our religious school students, but also within our adult population. While we are a small congregation, percentage-wise it's been said that we have we have a higher proportion of talented congregants that many other larger shuls. Maybe it has something to do with Leonia's long history as a center for creative expression within Bergen County. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on Leonia:

After traveling through Leonia after arriving in New Jersey by ferry at Edgewater in 1899, advertising executive Artemus Ward purchased a large piece of land and established the Leonia Heights Land Company to develop and market housing in the community, his advertising attracting many academics and artists who were attracted to Leonia's small size, culture, and location, earning the town's nickname of the "Athens of New Jersey".

In 1915, the Leonia School of Illustration was established by Harvey Dunn, fostering the artists' colony that subsequently emerged over the next decade. By the 1930s, it had the highest number of residents, per capita, in Who's Who in America and 80% of its residents were college graduates. Transportation through the borough was enhanced with access to ferries and trolley systems and Leonia became a refuge for many of America's most creative thinkers which included five Nobel Prize winners.

Whatever the reasons may be for it, there is no question that Adas Emuno's Got Talent! And we've decided that it's high time we acknowledged the fact, and shared it with the world:

Our first ever (at least in recent memory) Talent Show promises to be an evening of great entertainment, and we have a delightful dinner option available to make it a real night out! It's a fundraiser for the Adas Emuno Religious School, so the proceeds go to a good cause (and you can pay in advance by check or PayPal over on the left side). In addition to the competition, there will be some special additional performances to make the night especially memorable.

This event is open to the public, so come one, come all, you will not be disappointed!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Porcelain Unicorn

Our thanks to Rabbi Schwartz for bring this amazing and moving short film to our attention:

British film director Sir Ridley Scott launched a global film making contest for aspiring directors. It's titled "Tell It Your Way". There were over 600 entries.

The film could be no longer than three minutes, contain only 6 lines of narrative and be a compelling story. The winner was "Porcelain Unicorn" from American director Keegan Wilcox.

It's a story of the lifetimes of two people who are totally opposite, yet, very much the same - all told in less than 3 minutes.

You can learn more about the film from its website, http://www.porcelainunicorn.com. And on the RSA Films website, there is a news item that states

Ridley Scott announced Porcelain Unicorn from American director Keegan Wilcox as the winning short film in Philips’ Tell It Your Way film-making contest.

The contest, which received over 600 entries from around the world, invited aspiring filmmakers to create an original short film using the same six-line dialogue as the Cannes Lions award-winning Parallel Lines short films directed by RSA talents Carl Erik Rinsch, Greg Fay, Johnny Hardstaff, Jake Scott and Hi-Sim.

Commenting on his choice of winner, Sir Ridley Scott said: “I chose Porcelain Unicorn to be the winning film as it had a very strong narrative; a very complete story that was well told and executed.”

Directed by Keegan Wilcox, it is a sensitive and moving tale of how a traumatic wartime encounter inspires a man in later life. Wilson cites his grandfather’s war stories as inspiration for the short, and the ‘hero’s journey’ of a Joseph Conrad novel.

Keegan Wilcox commented: “I'm honored and humbled Sir Ridley Scott selected our film from five equally deserving entries. This came as a huge surprise. Being awarded the opportunity from Philips to gain valuable work experience at RSA is a privilege and a first step on the long road to a career.”

Following a round of public voting on YouTube to select the top five, the overall winning film, Porcelain Unicorn, was chosen by Sir Ridley Scott.

Along similar lines, a New York Times article dated September 24, 2010, reports

Ridley Scott, known for directing movies like “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator,” has chosen the winner of a contest to create short films that was sponsored by Philips.

Mr. Scott picked a film called “Porcelain Unicorn” as the winner of the Tell It Your Way contest. The name, echoing the long-time Burger King slogan, “Have it your way,” underlines the nature of the contest, which is in the genre known as consumer-generated or user-generated content.

“Porcelain Unicorn,” which can be watched on YouTube, was the brainchild of an American director, Keegan Wilcox. Mr. Wilcox, a producer and director at ELA Advertising in California, wins prizes that include a week working at Ridley Scott Associates and the promotion of his short by Philips in venues that include a section of the Philips Web site.

Mr. Scott selected the short from among more than 600 entries in the contest, which was inspired by online commercials for Philips, under the title “Parallel Lines,” created by the London office of DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group.

Truly an award well deserved, and one that resonates with the story told via song in our previous post from last month, Mademoiselle. Art, in so many different ways, has such power to perform the great mitzvah of memory.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sephardic Music Festival

Something that may be of interest is the upcoming Sephardic Music Festival in New York City, on December 20-27th. Here's some information about it, from their website:

The Sephardic Music Festival showcases the remarkable diversity that exists within the Jewish community. Its tapestry of harmonies, rhythms, and cultural motifs are as rich, vibrant, and diverse as the Jewish world itself. Popular perceptions of Jews and Jewish culture are dominated by Ashkenazi images and symbols like bagels, gefilte fish, klezmer, and Yiddish. This is the first music festival to focus exclusively on the less familiar but captivating culture of the Jewish communities of Spain/Portugal, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

The festival showcases artists from all over the world, representing cultural traditions from Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) to Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African) to Yemenite (Judeo-Arabic). In addition to traditional liturgical music, Shabbat songs, Sephardic folk tunes, and classic love poems (Romanceros), the festival also presents artists who fuse traditional rhythms, melodies, and themes with modern styles such as electro, hip hop, and dance music. The Sephardic Scholar Series, an important part of the Festival, brings performers, ethnomusicologists, and experts together to illuminate the historical and sociological roots of Sephardic music and culture.

quotes:

“This Hanukkah fest wants to school us in Jewish music—and not just your grandpa’s klez.” - Time Out NY

“Thanks to events like the Sephardic Music Festival, the sounds of Sephardic Jewry are at last beginning to get their due.” – The Forward

“For most New Yorkers, “Jewish music” means klezmer: plaintive fiddles, wailing clarinets and other vestiges of a largely vanished Eastern European culture. But at the Sephardic Music Festival, a New York City tradition…, the world of Jewish music gets explored from an entirely different angle, focusing on the aural legacy of Jewish communities from Spain and the Muslim world.” – JPost

“Our Hannukkah-side suggestion is the annual Sephardic Music Festival…look at this festival as the un-Ashkenazi festival.” - National Public Radio, WNYC

And here's a video promoting and fundraising for the festival:

Sephardic Music Festival Promo Clip from ShemspeedTV on Vimeo.

And the write up on the fundraising page goes like this:

Over the past 6 years we have produced the Sephardic Music Festival in NYC. The Festival highlights the remarkable diversity that exists within the Jewish community. Its tapestry of harmonies, rhythms, and cultural motifs are as rich, vibrant, and diverse as the Jewish world itself.. This is the first music festival to focus exclusively on the less familiar but captivating culture of the Jewish communities of Spain/Portugal, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

The festival showcases artists from all over the world, representing cultural traditions from Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) to Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African) to Yemenite (Judeo-Arabic). In addition to traditional liturgical music, Shabbat songs, Sephardic folk tunes, and classic love poems (Romanceros), the festival also presents artists who fuse traditional rhythms, melodies, and themes with modern styles such as electro, hip-hop, and dance music. The Sephardic Scholar Series, an important part of the Festival, brings performers, ethnomusicologists, and experts together to illuminate the historical and sociological roots of Sephardic music and culture. The festival also produces Fashion, Art & Food events, all promoting and showcasing diversity.

Your money will help fund this year’s festival, which will take place in and around NYC from December 20th through the 27th.

We will produce an incredible diverse series of events including a Sephardic Story Slam night, a flamenco dance night, an Israeli & International Hip Hop night, a Kosher Taste Fest, a World music dance party alternative to the Matzo Ball on Xmas eve, a mega event with the Godfather of Israeli music (Miki Gavrielov). These are events that you will not see anywhere else and they are vital to the preservation and education of this rich culture.

And here are some sights and sounds from previous years, representing some diverse musical tastes: