Reinventing Ritual
Contemporary Art and Design for Jewish Life
Daniel Belasco; with contributions by Arnold M. Eisen, Julie Lasky, Danya Ruttenberg, and Tamar Rubin

September 29, 2009
176 pages, 7 x 10
10 b/w + 93 color illus.
ISBN: 9780300146820
HC - Paper over Board
Published in association with The Jewish Museum
A guidebook to the most current trends in contemporary Jewish art and design, Reinventing Ritual provides an unprecedented look at the work and thought of contemporary artists as they respond to the needs and practices of traditional culture. Beautifully illustrated with new art from Israel, Europe, and the Americas, this publication features both traditional and avant-garde sculpture, textiles, architecture, metalwork, and ceramics by forty leading artists.
Author Daniel Belasco surveys current trends in Jewish ritual art and the influences of feminism, environmentalism, multiculturalism, and new media; Julie Lasky provides a groundbreaking discussion of the role of recycling and social consciousness in contemporary Jewish design; Danya Ruttenberg, a recently ordained rabbi, offers a lively perspective on the constantly evolving Jewish impulse "to concretize the encounter with the Divine"; Arnold M. Eisen writes an absorbing and personal commentary on the role of ritual in Jewish life today; and Tamar Rubin contributes an illustrated timeline covering key Jewish cultural and historical events from 1994 to 2008.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
The Jewish Museum, New York (September 13, 2009–February 7, 2010)
Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco (April 22 - September 28, 2010)
Read the author's blog at thejewishmuseum.org.