Jewish Studio Project (JSP) is founded on the belief that creativity exists within each of us and that creativity is a vital resource in the work of social transformation. The core of JSP’s work is a unique methodology that combines traditional Jewish text study (using a Beit Midrash model) with a structured process of art making (visual and plastic arts as well as creative writing). Both elements--Beit Midrash and Creative Process--exist to expand the capacities of individuals and communities to sit with challenge and change (that is, to cultivate curiosity, navigate uncertainty, sit with discomfort, and process complexity) so that right action can emerge.
What is a Beit Midrash in the context of the Jewish Studio Process?
In English “Beit Midrash” can be translated as a “house of inquiry.” This phrase contains the core elements of JSP’s approach to text study: First, it is an ideal home, a base where ideally we return again and again. It is a place that welcomes us at every stage of life and where we can mark our own growth and development as we change. And, like an ideal home, the Beit Midrash is a place where we feel the threads of connection between ourselves, whomever currently resides in that space with us, and whomever has come before us in that space- including elders and ancestors.
Second, the process of learning is as important as the discovery. Rather than seeking the “right answers”, Beit Midrash learning is centered around asking generative, probing, thoughtful questions, and even engaging the questions for which no answer exists. JSP Beit Midrash is a space (physical or virtual) where we seek to create an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their questions and thoughts, being vulnerable, expressing emotion, and challenging one another. It is a place where we can let go of pretenses and other roles we play in life in order to enter into a process of collaborative inquiry through authentic conversation.
Our Beit Midrash welcomes learners of all backgrounds and experience levels. Students with vast experience studying Jewish texts are welcomed alongside those with other kinds of experience - that of a social worker, accountant or parent. We believe that it is through engagement with more and diverse voices that our texts can be best elucidated and each of us can obtain a richer understanding of the text - and of ourselves. Done in this way, Beit Midrash cultivates empowered, engaged, inquisitive learners who dive into texts collaboratively, with curiosity and confidence.
What is the role of text study in the Jewish Studio Process?
For JSP, text study aims to be accessible, relevant and spiritually alive. The inquiry into text is framed by questions that lead to exploration of human existence: what it means to be alive and to live a life of purpose.
In the Jewish Studio Process, the ultimate goal is not the acquisition of particular knowledge or memorization of facts. Learning isn’t solely about informing our practice of Jewish precepts; it also informs our actual, lived, ordinary, astounding lives. The focus is on the authenticity and relevance of the questions we pose and the ones raised in the context of chevrutah study. Ideally, Beit Midrash inquiry always touches on and mixes together three realms: the text, the self, and the broader world.
The interactive process of text study--including group discussion and chevrutah (paired) study--is meant to be generative and stimulating. In our Beit Midrash, we are each engaged in trying out ways of understanding a text, and supporting and challenging one another’s ideas. We build energy through this intellectual exchange as we demonstrate the value of including multiple perspectives.
Through text study we begin to activate the same qualities we will later build upon in our Creative Process: going into the unknown, charting our own course for learning and growth, holding the possibility of multiple truths, and practicing comfort with ambiguity by not asserting specific conclusions. Beit Midrash is a practice not only for weaving threads of connection between us and Jewish tradition, developing our Jewish literacy, and surfacing new insights and ideas; it is also a practice for cultivating particular qualities of self. We believe that the qualities of self - known as “Chevrutah Disposition” through the work of Dr.s Orit Kent and Elie Holzer - are vital for the development of empathy and resilience skills critically needed in our world today.
How are text study and the arts integrated in the Jewish Studio Process?
At the conclusion of a text study one often feels animated - either excited by an idea that resonates or heated by an idea that feels challenging. As these feelings surface, we have an opportunity to look for the spark of something that is calling to be explored more fully.
During our Creative Process, we engage the same topic that was the focus of the text study while using different media. This enables us to allow the cerebral learning to settle and to continue to unfold as we access inner wisdom that resides in places other than our intellect.
Ideally this process occurs in a spiral. Done as an ongoing practice, one never “ends” or “begins” but continually circles back from text study to Creative Process and back again, bringing new wisdom from one to the other. In this way, Creative Process is not just about using the texts to gain deeper insight into ourselves, but about giving our stories, insights and questions back to the texts, breathing new life and creating fresh openings through which others may travel.
JSP Sample Source Sheets
Examples of our Beit Midrash source sheets explicitly related to creativity can be found here: