judaica

Imagine Judaica objects for a few seconds. What are you thinking about? Maybe about some heavily embellished blackened silver object? Maybe about an improvised menorah? This is not a coincidence. Most of the Judaica objects we encounter are designed according to two main approaches: One replicates and recreates the look of classical European jewish relics and the other deals with personal interpretation to the set of laws that the object offers, and usually has no connection to the Jewish heritage. In this course we will offer another approach to designing these objects: we will examine how our history and heritage can become a significant part in the design of a contemporary object that renews and illuminates dark corners in the territory of Judaica objects. We will deconstruct and re-examine rituals that accompany the Jewish life cycle, with an emphasis on the human aspect and especially on the interaction between the object that accompanies the performance of the ritual and the human choreography around it. We will explore the evolution of the ceremonies that our forefathers performed, what has been forgotten and what has been preserved to this day in the ceremonies we hold and we will use this broad observation in the past to expand the boundaries of the object designed in the present. The knowledge we will accumulate will be used to create a Judaica object that stretches thin strings between objects from a Jewish repertoire of 5,780 years and contemporary design.