Cafe News: Tmol Shilshom hosts a Jewish renaissance
Close to 100 people packed the Jerusalem cafe/bookstore Tmol Shilshom last Monday evening in a celebration of poetry, songs and the spoken word and their fusion with Jewish culture. The event was co-sponsored by the Jewish literary and cultural group Mima'amakim (meaning "from the depths," a quote from Psalms) and Jew School a Jewish cultural blog of artists, writers, and photographers.
Mima'amakim, based in NYC, puts out an annual journal of poetry, prose, visual arts and other channels of artistic expression by Jews, as a vehicle of connecting their religion and culture to creative statement. This year's journal, also called Mima'amakim, is expected to appear in October and is approximately 80 pages long.
The group which held its second Jerusalem-based event last week and hopes to increase the frequency of such in the future began six years ago at Yeshiva University in Upper Manhattan.
Publicizing itself almost entirely through word of mouth, the YU group branched out and combined with various groups from other local universities. Originally just the annual print journal publication, Mima'amakim branched out to include a website for posting writing and a way of communication with other like-minded individuals, as well as numerous poetry slams. Currently, according to the group's founder Jake Marmer, there are two large-scale reading events and four to five smaller events annually. The larger events have taken place at well-known New York City landmarks such as the Bowery Poetry Club and Makor, while smaller events take place at the universities themselves. Marmer says that over 700 people are on the group's e-mail list.
Marmer, 26 and living in New York, says that the events include not just readings, but a variety of forms of "artistic communication." Previous events have included performances by musicians such as Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu.
"The idea of the journal was to be an artistic exploration of the Jewish religious experience," says Marmer, after Monday's event at Tmol Shilshom, which for 11 years has been the Jerusalem home of poets such as Yehuda Amihai, and frequent reading by both Israeli and international authors.
"The events, though, are more of a way to let these writings and personalities come alive in a live setting. The event tonight was even more than what I had I expected. So many people, so many great artists, and in Jerusalem, it was truly exciting. It was great that we also did it with Jew School, because it brings the politically minded and the artistic together."
Jew School was founded and led by Dan Sieradski, 26, from New York City, who will soon be moving to Jerusalem. According to Sieradski, the group hosts most popular progressive Jewish weblogs, at over 45,000 readers per month. Though the group's ideology tends to be politically leftist, both in terms of internal Israeli politics and the country's conflict with Palestinians, as well as in the American Jewish political world, Sieradski says that the group "provides an avenue for young Jews, both religious and secular, to connect with their culture and history, along with their present."
"I think it's very important that there be a Jewish cultural renaissance," says Sieradski. "While there is plenty of Jewish culture out there, a lot of it is stagnant and stale and not relevant to Jewish youth. So it's more important to tap into the things that people are already excited about, so that they can express their Jewish identity through those things."
Monday's event included poems in both English and Hebrew, rap songs, hassidic stories and perhaps in a tribute to Tmol Shilshom's past an acoustic guitar accompanied song that merged Leonard Cohen and verses by Amihai.
The readings included reflections on topics ranging political realities such as from this summer's disengagement from the Gaza Strip and anti-Arab graffiti, to more spiritual connections, such as a moment in prayer.
One evening's readers, Abigael, 23, who made aliya from London seven weeks ago, says that she attended an event in New York, but this was her first event in Jerusalem. She like many of the other evening's participants noticed the mixture of artistic, religious, and political themes.
"I noticed some people used the platform to voice their political views. I prefer to create something beautiful," said Abigael.
Josh Frankel, 24, a Jerusalem resident, participated in last year's event in Jerusalem, but thought this one was even better due to the increased disparity of personalities.
"The crowd was more diverse this time. It wasn't just students, but also a good group of older people as well. The great part about Mima'amakim is that it attracts a lot of people, and it gives them motivation to write more, to be involved in creating something, to write and to explore. What I really like about Mima'amakim is that it gives people the chance for more religious exploration, for religious thought, the overall framework gives people that opportunity and that is was is so exciting," said Frankel.
To highlight the night's diversity, the poems focused on locations from Washington Heights, Riverside Drive and Grand Central Parkway in Queens to Jerusalem, Gush Katif, Safed, Hebron and Auschwitz, while alluding to personalities as diverse as kabbalist Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, reggae musician Bob Marley, comedian and filmaker Woody Allen, Israeli prime ministers and Hitler.
A real smorgasbord of Jews and their ideas.
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