Creative Workshop: Blackout Poetry

Turned Jewish Text into Personal Connection

Session Length: 50-55 Minutes

"Every Jew is a letter. Each Jewish family is a word, every community a sentence, and the Jewish people at any one time are a paragraph. The Jewish people through time constitute a story, the strangest and most moving story in the annals of humankind."  - Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks    

Our texts have always carried a multiplicity of meaning and depth. In this creative workshop, participants will explore the rich literary tradition of Jewish and Zionist writing through the lens of black-out poetry, a contemporary art form that transforms existing texts into entirely new works by selectively revealing the words within them. From biblical passages to the writings of the early Zionist movement, each source text becomes both raw material and cultural conversation, connecting participants to their heritage in a genuinely hands-on and personal way. Balancing equal parts learning and creative expression, this workshop totally restructures textual study or hevruta into a fun and interactive activity that the participant takes home with them!