Taking inspiration from Shavuot as the festival of the first fruits of the harvest, this year we invite you to join us for a night of exploring new ways of engaging with our ancient tradition and Jewish culture.
7 – 7:50pm: Torah as a New Song
A conversation between Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community, and Rabbi Raphael Zarum, Dean of LSJS. Together they will explore why Torah is called a song, and the multi-sensory nature of the revelation at Sinai.
8 – 8:50pm: New Writing with Old Words
Michael Rosen and Sophie Herxheimer’s collections of poetry transform the language of their ancestors into new forms. Here they discusses this process of bringing these voices back to life with Jewish Renaissance's Aviva Dautch. Beloved writer, broadcaster and legendary wordsmith, Michael Rosen’s latest collection of poems, Mr Mensh, offers a view of the world based on some of the characters found at the kitchen table of a secular Jewish family in the ‘50’s. Sophie Herxheimer’s Velkom To Inkland was the Sunday Times Poetry Book of the Year. The collection brings vividly to life the voice of her German Jewish Grent Muzzer, Liesel, whose somewhat abrasive perspektiff she has never been able to forget. In association with Jewish Renaissance.
9 – 9:50pm: Jew-ish
Join musician Max Bloom for a special live recording of his Jew-ish podcast. Max and his guest, performer Ash Kenazi, will explore the diversity of Jewish identity, and the influence of Jewish youth movements, artistic expression and boundary breaking, challenging audiences, and embracing and celebrating one’s full identity. Even the Jew-ish bit.
10 – 10:50pm: New Space
Musician Francesca Ter-Berg will be performing new work from her recently released debut solo EP ‘In Eynem’ and sharing the story of how she, and other local Jewish artists and community activists saved Margate synagogue from developers and are transforming it into a cross-arts cultural space.
11 – 11:50pm: New Revelations - Young Jewish Artists
New Revelations presents four talented young Jewish artists sharing about their work, Jewish identity and creativity in a pandemic. We’re excited to be joined by fashion and digital designer Nicole Zisman (previous commissions include a dress for Grayson Perry), visual artist and sculptor Ally Rosenberg, theatre-maker and performer Emma Brand, and architectural designer Kenneth Awele Okafor.
New Revelations Artists■
Ally Rosenberg
Ally Rosenberg is a Manchester-born, London-based visual artist, working primarily in sculpture. After studying fine art at London’s Central St Martins and New York’s Pratt Institute, he completed a masters degree in cognitive neuroscience at UCL. His work takes a playful, pseudo-anatomical look at the body, using processes of slicing, casting and combining a range of unconventional and traditional materials. Having exhibited internationally, Ally’s work has been placed in collections in Italy, Germany, New York and London.
Emma Brand
Emma Brand is a theatre-maker and performer from London. Her work explores social issues through playful, audience-centric means. Having studied Performance Making at Goldsmiths University, she has taken shows to VAULT Festival, (drop dead gorgeous, 2020), Brighton Fringe (How to Make Me Happy, 2018) and the Edinburgh Fringe (Whalebone, 2017). 'Whalebone' was selected as one of The Stage's Highlights of the Fringe in 2017. Over lockdown she has created a Zoom show, 'The Stove', for which she has received support from Arts Council England. She produced and performed 'The Stove' as part of Electric Dreams Online and Living Record Festival ('Brand creates a magical world of comfort for all to share', ****A Younger Theatre).
Kenneth Awele Okafor
Kenneth Awele Okafor is an architectural designer who runs his own business – StudioKAZAAD. The company deals with architecture projects in the UK and abroad, such as residential, commercial and community-related work. Mr Okafor has received several graduate awards, such as the RIBA Emerging Architectural Talent of the Future and the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust Building Futures Programme Award for his creative work contributing to prominent architecture practices.
Kenneth has designed architectural spaces for individuals with mental health and learning difficulties that promote the concept of inclusiveness for all communities. Kenneth is also a Royal Institute of British Architects Community Engagement Officer and is arranging to visit schools and colleges to educate children and adults on architecture, focusing on individuals with interests in drawings and model making on behalf of RIBA.
A British-born Jew with Nigerian Igbo, Maghreb and Sephardi heritage, Kenneth is a member of Seven Hills Synagogue in Sheffield. He promotes awareness for African Judaism in the UK with talks, debates and screenings, as well as donated prayer books, Torah scrolls and other Judaica resources to Jewish communities in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. He aims to create awareness with an effort focused on building a communal identity for British Jews of Colour. Kenneth is also a member of our Young JW3 Advisory Group.
Nicole Zisman
Nicole Zisman is a fashion and digital designer addressing the complexity of stratified Jewish identity in the West within physical and digital culture, and the visuality around assimilation through print and image.
Zisman completed her BA in Fashion Design from Central Saint Martins in 2019. Her work has received publicity from the likes of Dazed, LOVE Magazine, Vogue Italia, Teen Vogue, Tatler, King Kong Garçon, Schon! Magazine and SHOWstudio. In October 2019, Zisman presented her first solo exhibition, יהי רצון / So Let It Be Your Will, supervised by Dr. Francesco Mazzarella and Professor Lucy Orta, hosted by Centre for Sustainable Fashion and Waltham Forest, London Borough of Culture 2019. In February 2020, she presented at London Fashion Week as part of the Positive Fashion Exhibition at 180 the Strand.
In July 2020, the digital presentation of her fully circular Capsule collection (created with sponsorship from Natural Fiber Welding and featuring a collaborative look with Feminist Internet) debuted with Helsinki Fashion Week and Scotomalab, and was later presented at London Fashion Week. Her previous commissions include a custom dress for Grayson Perry’s alter-ego, Claire.
