Spotlight on CLAL
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and interests. Bookmark this page if you want to get to know us better.
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Jewish Diversity Through Word And Art
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
Perhaps no one photographer has captured the diversity of Jewish identity around the globe as Frederic Brenner....In his new two-volume set, “Diaspora: Homelands in Exile” (Harper Collins, 2003), Brenner explores what it means to be Jewish in a changing world.... Volume 2 offers a series of commentaries by leading contemporary intellectuals who examine the various issues and interpretations at the heart of Brenner’s photographs. Joining Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, Ph. D., CLAL’s Director of Organizational Development, who wrote the introduction for the volume, are such notable thinkers as Andre Aciman, Daniel Boyarin, Jacques Derrida, Carlos Fuentes, George Steiner, and Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg.
“Brenner’s photographs offer a new fluid model for photography,” said Rabbi Blanchard. “His photos beg the viewer to respond, almost like the first remark of a conversation. The audience must construct the meaning. The photos are not static, so there is much room for interpretation.”
In his introduction, Rabbi Blanchard focused on the how Brenner’s photographs reflect the pluralism of Jewish life across the world, challenging the sense of a singular Jewish identity or authenticity. His work shows that Jewish life comes in many styles and forms, and there is no one correct notion of an essential Jew.
“Brenner’s work will increasingly undermine our conscious belief that there is only one way to be Jewish,” said Rabbi Blanchard. “The sheer diversity of the countries alone break our stereotypical ideas of Jews in Diaspora/exile. But the photos themselves undermine profiling. They present paradoxes that question how we see ourselves and how we see our world.”
Rabbi Blanchard pointed out that what Brenner does
through photography is what CLAL does through its teachings, programs, and
courses. “CLAL provides the intellectual approach that is reflected in
Brenner’s work. As a leader for religious pluralism, CLAL says that there
are as many ways to be Jewish as there are Jews. We need to break out of
the confines of one view of Jewish life and see the enormity of how people
experience and express their own Jewish identity. Like Brenner’s
photographs, we celebrate Jewish diversity, and see that as a strength, not
a weakness, of Jewish life in the years to come.”
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