In Elijah’s Seat by Hannah Blount

About this project: "This piece is a short story responding to the idea of an Orthodox monopoly on Judaism and Jewish identity. It speaks of the small but powerful community of secular Jews who have built a culture outside the Orthodox paradigm with intentionality and creativity."

Scroll down to download this piece and find out more about the contributing artist.

About the artist: "Hannah Blount is an arts student with a double major in History and Philosophy. She has a small arsenal of creative essays sitting on her Google Drive which consider the plural of 'anecdote' to be 'data', but took a break from them to write this story. Hannah spends a disproportionate amount of time thinking about how cool secular Judaism and its socialist affiliations are."

We asked, our artists answered: why does creativity matter now?  "I think that the isolations, lockdowns, and slower pace of life this year have turned up the volume on the voices inside people's heads. Sometimes this can be a difficult and toxic experience, but sometimes the voices can be harnessed to create amazing art. I see creative projects in 2020 as the result of people taking more time to sit and listen to the conversations and thoughts and analyses inside their minds, which I believe are an incredible, vibrant source of knowledge about the world."