Arts Fellowship 2006 - 2007

 

Read more about the Arts Fellowship Program. Read highlights from 2011-12, 2010-11, 2009-10, 2008-9, 2007-8
Download Arts Fellowship Application

Drisha launched the Arts Fellowships Initiative in the fall of 2006 attracting eight women artists – writers and poets, a musician, an actress, a dancer, and an arts educator and calligrapher – to develop skills to interpret classical Jewish texts.
 
“We're committed to providing equal access to the study of classical Jewish texts,” said Rabbi David Silber, founder and dean of Drisha Institute. “The arts fellowships further extend the learning opportunities to the arts community, and deepen the knowledge base in Jewish education and leadership.”

With the help of a tuition waiver and funding, artists such as calligrapher and arts educator, Barbara Ashkenas, are taking time off from busy schedules to strengthen their knowledge of Judaism, to nourish their spiritual lives, and to develop their craft. Barbara Ashkenas has written:

"Being a member of the Drisha Arts Fellowships Initiative has been an amazing educational experience. I have been privileged to attend classes in Biblical Hebrew, Parshat HaShavua, two Talmud courses week, a weekly Halacha class on organ donation , two Tanach courses—Shmuel I and Exodus—Mishpatim and a Parshanut class on the Joseph narrative. The quality of the learning has been exceptional. Biblical Hebrew, taught by Rabbi Yitzhak Berger, has come alive through Berger’s wit and creative memory devices that help us remember grammatical rules. He also incorporates readings from the Parsha and The Book of Esther enriching our textual learning experience. What has really been an important part of the experience is the interactions with my fellow students. I find it interesting and exciting to be in an environment that allows me to study with people from different backgrounds, ages and stages of life."

Basya Schechter, musician and composer and the band leader of Pharaoh’s Daughter, recently wrote:

"Learning at Drisha has given me access to texts and ways of approaching meaning and commentary that translates into working with my musical projects. One of my projects includes songs about marginal Biblical women, such as Hagar and Tamar, and integrating commentaries into the compositions. A second project involves composing hip-hop music around Biblical texts and collaborating with rappers, who will give new and time-relevant commentary and scenarios to these words. The last project is ethno-musicological, bringing the messages of Pirkei Avot—in the form of a collage of Talmudic style conversations from various cultures—to different ethnic communities as a way of finding moral commonalities.“

Drisha artists such as Mara Friedman are role models for those in the Jewish community who may struggle to blend a love of Judaism with a passion for the arts. Mara, a dancer and educator, has said:

"The most important thing that I have found at Drisha is the supportive community. Everyone seems very interested in the work of the artists and in finding ways to make connections between the texts that we learn at Drisha and art, more specifically (in my case) dance.  With the help and enthusiasm from my peers, I decided to make a dance curriculum connecting movement and prayer. I will begin by teaching a lesson with a Drisha student from the Scholars Circle program to high school students this winter."

Mara teaches regular dance classes to children at a number of Upper West Side synagogues and has developed an educational Jewish movement program, Wiggling Book Worms, that has achieved great success and is widely praised (www.wigglingbookworms.com).

Many of the artists who study at Drisha are already serious practitioners of their particular craft, motivated, and accomplished. They are beginning to make an impact on the arts world. Drisha Arts Fellow, poet and essayist, Eve Grubin, author of the book of poems, Morning Prayer (The Sheep Meadow Press, 2005), wrote:

"Following the publication of Morning Prayer, I gave readings at several venues including the Folger Shakespeare Library, Auburn Theological Seminary, Barnard College, and NYU. I was able to discuss the Jewish textual issues that inform my writing with genuine fluency. I would not have been able to speak with such confidence about Jewish subjects if it were not for my learning at Drisha. I am looking forward to growing even more from the intellectual and spiritual nourishment that Drisha provides and, in turn, I hope to nourish the Jewish community and the larger world with what I am learning at Drisha."

 

About the Artists

Barbara Ashkenas has a BS in Elementary Education from Ohio State University and an MAT in Art Education from Manhattanville College. She was an adjunct professor at Housatonic Community College and was educational outreach coordinator at the Stamford Center for the Arts. An art educator and calligrapher, she has taught at SAR High School in Riverdale, at Jewish summer camps and at adult workshops. She created the “Learning for Peace” program at Congregation Agudath Sholom with Rabbi Daniel Cohen to promote peace through Jewish study.

 

Mara Friedman has a BA from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University in Modern Jewish Studies and Creative Writing and Literature. She also has an MS from Pace University in Teaching. She taught dance in public schools for three years, and she has worked as a Hebrew school teacher at the Sutton Place Synagogue, and founded the Wiggling Bookworms, a dance and creative movement program for children. 

 

 

Eve Grubin has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in poetry. She teaches poetry at The New School and at the City College of New York, and she will be The Marvin and Edward Kaplan Lecturer in Jewish Studies at City College in the spring of 2007. Her book of poems, Morning Prayer, was published by The Sheep Meadow Press in 2005. 

 

 

Deborah Jaffe has a BA in English Literature and Rhetoric from Binghamton University and an MFA in Acting from The Actor's Studio Drama School at The New School. She has acted off-Broadway with the Pearl Theatre Company and the Abingdon Theatre Company (where she is a member), and in several other theatres in New York City. She works at the Teva Learning Center, has taught Hebrew School, and tutors Bar/Bat Mitzvah students. She is currently working on a one-woman show about the Bar/Bat mitzvah tutoring experience.

Janet R. Kirchheimer has a BS from Central Connecticut State College. A poet and essayist, her work has appeared in Potomac Review, Lilith, Main Street, and Natural Bridge, among other publications. She is completing a poetry manuscript about her family and the Holocaust, and she was a finalist in the Portlandia and the Concrete Wolf Chapbook contests. She is Director of Community Development and Assistant to the President of CLAL. Janet leads the Poetry Shmooze at The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, and teaches adults and teens at various synagogues using Jewish texts and creative writing exercises.

Adrienne Query has a BA in English and an MFA in poetry from Chatham College. She is the recipient of the Beatrice Lewis Award for Creative Writing and the Academy of American Poets' Walt Whitman Award. Her chapbook, After Eden, was released by Zabadou Books in May of 2006. Her undergraduate critical thesis focused on the "new midrash" of contemporary poetry. 
 

Basya Schechter has a BA in English Literature from Barnard College. She is the band leader of Pharaoh's Daughter. She is a musician at B'nai Jeshurun, and the music teacher at The Brotherhood Synagogue where she also leads the Alef Bet Club. She is collaborating with educator and Sephardic composer, Galeet Dardashti, and visual artist, Siona Bengamin, on a song cycle recording project of compositions about biblical women.

 

Samantha Shapiro has a BA in Literature and History from Washington University, St. Louis. She was a volunteer for the American Jewish Society for Service, and helped build community centers in Louisiana. She has written for The Forward, Ha'aretz, Slate, The Jerusalem Report, and other publications. She is currently a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, and is working on a book of essays about Sukkot.

 

For more information about applying to or supporting the program, please contact Lori Leifer, Arts Fellowship Coordinator.

Download the Arts Fellowship application.

 Read more about the Arts Fellowship Program. Read highlights from 2011-12, 2010-11, 2009-10, 2008-9, 2007-8