The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah is bringing artists-in-residence Isaac and Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik, who call what they do “Paper Midrash.”
The weekend, sponsored by the Michael Klein Collection at B’nai Jehudah — in partnership with the Jewish Art Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation — offers unique, hands-on learning opportunities in Kansas City the weekend of Dec. 2 through 4, 2022.
“Our workshops enable people to recognize their lives in the stories of Jewish tradition, making Jewish text accessible by connecting it to comics and pop culture. We can look at Superman as another way to understand biblical characters like Abraham or Sarah, and how we use stories to understand our own lives,” said Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik, a Reform rabbi who travels the world with her husband teaching Torah through the lenses of traditional scholarship, pop culture, and art.
“Superman is the ultimate American story in many ways, and a very Jewish story as well. He’s an immigrant from a faraway land who has to balance upholding the culture of his ancestors with assimilation into American culture — growing up on a farm in Kansas,” said Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik, a papercut collage artist whose work includes cut-up comics.
The Brynjegard-Bialiks live in Southern California but travel the world as scholars-in-residence using art to “look at traditional sources through a secondary, contemporary lens,” said Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik.
Their hands-on workshops enable participants “to create art as a way to study text critically and deeply; we refer to it as Torah study with knives,” says Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik.
Congregation B’nai Jehudah is hosting the Brynjegard-Bialiks for three days of learning and creating centered around superheroes and Jewish tradition. There will be hands-on papercutting workshops (everyone will be cutting up comic books), a “Make Your Own Golem” program, and presentation on topics such as “Maccabees and Other Superheroes,” just ahead of Hanukkah.
“What makes this such a special weekend is that the learning opportunities are so varied. If you want to try your hand at papercutting, you can. If you want to hear how they make Jewish stories relevant through pop culture, you can do that too,” said Abby Magariel, educator/curator of the Klein Collection.
The following events are open to the public:
- “Damaged Heroes: Midrash & Pop Culture Mythology” will be held on Friday, Dec. 2, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at B’nai Jehudah.
- “Erev Shabbat Service: Maccabees and other SuperHeroes” will be held on Friday, Dec. 2, at 6 p.m. both at B’nai Jehudah and livestream.
The lead-up-to-Hanukkah sermon from Rabbi Shawna and Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik will feature papercut art visual t'filah on the chapel screens.
“The goal is to engage our community in thinking about Torah from a different perspective. At the end of the day, we want Torah to be relevant in everyone’s lives. We hope this weekend brings families together to talk about these topics while having fun and creating original artwork at the same time,” Magariel said.
A complete listing of events for the weekend is available at bnaijehudah.org/artists-in-residence-weekend or by calling 913-663-4050.