Julie Weitz: Judaism Unbound Podcast Episode 299 - Becoming a Golem
Julie Weitz, a performance artist whose work "uses humor and ritual to propose ethically-grounded and intersectional reconsiderations of pressing contemporary issues," joins Dan and Lex for a conversation exploring the legend of the Golem -- and how it might be relevant to our observance of the Sh'mitah year (the once-every-7-year sabbatical year, marked via a recalibration of humans' relationship to the earth, and the remission of debts).
[1] Learn more about Julie Weitz by visiting JulieWeitz.com. Register for Weitz’s upcoming event, entitled Holy Sparks: Cultural and Spiritual Fire, taking place on November 18th via Zoom, and gathered by the Contemporary Jewish Museum, here.
[2] It’s not too late to check out Julie Weitz’s solo exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum! Check out Golem: A Call to Action, anytime before December 5th, 2021 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco! You can learn more about the Contemporary Jewish Museum via TheCJM.org.
[3] Weitz mentions a text called Sefer Yetzirah (the book of creation), which is associated with the creation of Golems. Learn more about Sefer Yetzirah here.
[4] Weitz also cites her teacher Victoria Hanna, who teaches about the mystical associations of the letters in the Hebrew Alef-Bet (alphabet). Check out Hanna’s hit song — a version of the Alef-Bet — here.
[5] A number of organizations and projects arose which have been featured on Judaism Unbound in the past. Learn more about Never Again Action by listening to Episode 230: Never Again Action - Tal Frieden, Becca Lubow, about the Jewish Psychedelic Summit via Bonus Episode: The Jewish Psychedelic Summit - Natalie Ginsberg, Madison Margolin, about Wilderness Torah by tuning in to Episode 176: Wilderness Torah - Zelig Golden, and about David Seidenberg’s work via Episode 290: Nobody Owns Land - David Seidenberg.
[6] You can purchase the book The Spell of the Sensuous, written by David Abram and referenced by Weitz in this episode, at this link.
[7] Learn more about the Sagehen Creek Field Station, where Weitz filmed My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter, via this New Yorker article entitled A Trailblazing Plan to Fight California Wildfires.
[8] Weitz cites influential art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, along with artist Mark Rothko, and discusses how — when she was being trained as an artist — she was told that they hid their Jewish identities. For a 1997 article exploring this, see “‘Too Jewish?’” Hardly,” from the LA Times.