Posted to Chabad News on
by Sara Trappler-Spielman - Chabad.org

Students at the new Tzohar Seminary for Chassidus and the Arts combine in-depth studies of Chasidic philosophy with professional artistic instruction.

Rivka Eilfort is an 18-year-old Chasidic singer and songwriter whose parents serve as Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in southern California. She sings deep, mystical lyrics while playing the guitar like a natural star.

New Seminary Combines Chasidism and Art

by Sara Trappler-Spielman – Chabad.org

Students at the new Tzohar Seminary for Chassidus and the Arts combine in-depth studies of Chasidic philosophy with professional artistic instruction.

Rivka Eilfort is an 18-year-old Chasidic singer and songwriter whose parents serve as Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in southern California. She sings deep, mystical lyrics while playing the guitar like a natural star.

“Rivka was always attracted to music,” says her mother, Nechama Eilfort. “She composed on the piano and guitar from a young age. She breathed music.”

Eilfort wants to pursue a music career and study music professionally. She dreams of performing concerts for Jewish girls and recording CDs, but opportunities have typically been scarce for observant Jewish female artists who adhere to the Judaism’s laws of modesty and as such, do not perform in front of men.

That is until a groundbreaking new program, the Tzohar Seminary for Chassidus and the Arts, opened its doors this fall in Pittsburgh, Pa. Its first group of 11 talented young women is literally singing its praises, as well as dancing, painting, writing, performing and filming.

Eilfort, who attends Tzohar, is studying traditional Jewish texts like most of the girls she went to high school with, but she’s also developing her passion for music. She is already learning new skills at Tzohar to help her along the way: reading music, videography, music theory and voice lessons by a professional opera singer.

“Girls are dying to play music,” says her mother, who serves as the rebbetzin at Chabad of La Costa in Carlsbad, Calif. “They should be living it. The school’s goal is to take the talent. They can still be Chasidic, creative and modest.”

Around the world, most Jewish day school girls attend seminary the year after their high school graduation. They embark on a year of spiritual self-discovery, often away from home, while they gain skills in teaching and learning Torah.

Chabad-Lubavitch run seminaries exist in such countries as Israel, Australia, Italy and Canada, and in cities throughout the United States, but this is the first time a seminary is integrating the deeper, inner dimensions of Chasidic thought with the creative arts.

“Tzohar seminary, like a window, will let in the light of creativity into the students’ lives,” explains Amy Guterson, the school’s founder and director, who chose a name for her institution by looking at the Hebrew word used to describe the window and precious stone that brought light to Noah’s Ark.

“Together with learning Chasidic thought and their sense of purpose, the students’ G‑d given talents will help project the beauty of Torah to the world in a new way,” she adds.

By offering college-comparable courses in the arts such as writing, music, dance, fine arts, theatre and filmmaking, as well as classes in Chasidic philosophy with notable teachers, Tzohar is helping its students develop their skills in a creative yet sacred environment.

Guterson is a Pittsburgh artist who studied theatre at Stern College for Women in New York and then earned her graduate degree in acting from The New Actors Workshop. She studied with acclaimed actress Uta Hagen and respected director Mike Nichols and was a member of Actor’s Equity, and performed off-Broadway.

Her journey led her from the non-religious theater world to the Chabad community in Pittsburgh, where she became involved in creative community projects.

New Opportunities

In the past, Guterson struggled with what she saw as a restriction for religious and female artists – not only couldn’t she grace the stage on the Sabbath, but she was restricted in performing for a general mixed audience.

Although she originally felt she had to make a choice between art and religion, Guterson eventually embraced both seemingly opposite worlds by realizing that art can complement or come from Judaism itself.

“The limitations of not being able to act in the theater world on Shabbat made me create my own opportunities, and become a writer, director and producer as well,” she relates.

Among her listed achievements was creating the award-winning festival film, “Becoming Rachel,” and heading a diverse all-women’s theater group in her community called Kol Isha, which created original productions based on issues of Jewish womanhood and Jewish unity.

“There’s something in women-for-women performance pieces,” Guterson enthuses. “What I saw before as limitations I now see as directing me down my path. We should be creating performances and events to reach women across all spectrums.”

Guterson believes her seminary is filling the need to create venues for Chasidic female artists. In addition to plays, videos and artistic projects her students will share with the community, they will also teach after-school arts at the Jewish day schools and teach Judasim through the arts in local Hebrew schools.

The seminary is also helping to connect the community of Pittsburgh by serving as a focal point for many local artists and writers now practicing Judaism. There’s an impressive array of faculty with artistic and academic backgrounds who serve as mentors and teachers to Tzohar students, whether in the classically Judaic subjects or in the arts.

Guterson pooled together teachers from nearby, such as filmmaking instructor Leibel Cohen, creator of the popular “Agent Emes” DVD series for Jewish children, and Rabbi Shais Taub, director of Judaism website Chabad.org’s multimedia portal Jewish.TV and author of the successful teaching tool The Map of Tanya and Soul Maps. Leah-Perl Shollar, an educator and published author, is teaching creative writing with Jewish sources.

Guterson, who is teaching theater, sees her role as “nurturing students’ talents.” She wants her students to integrate learning, creativity and life with the themes they explore in works of Jewish law, Torah commentaries, history, and the talks and discourses of the Lubavitcher Rebbes.

The school’s principal is Rabbi Aaron Herman, who is known for his teaching skills and developing curricula, including courses for the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. After spending 13 years as a Chabad rabbi in Raleigh, N.C., Herman returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh as Tzohar was getting started.

“All the [Judaic] classes we hope will be an inspiration for the arts classes,” says Herman. “Students can take a new idea that they learn and apply it. It shows an integration of an idea if you can express it in a different manner.”

Backing the seminary are Rabbi Yisroel and Blumie Rosenfeld, the head Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries of Western Pennsylvania who function as the school’s spiritual mentors. Witnessing Guterson’s success with many projects for the Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburg, Blumie Rosenfeld admired Guterson’s new concept for the arts seminary.

“The girls feel they need to use their talents to express themselves and Amy is giving them a chance to use if for holiness,” explains Rosenfeld. “It can have a profound impact on their lives and on future generations.”

Rochel Goldsmith, who was raised in Iowa, decided to attend the seminary because her mother is an artist and she grew up in an artistic home. Wanting to pursue a career in the arts, Goldsmith originally planned to attend the Pratt Institute and then heard about Tzohar.

“Arts and Chasidic thought are both big parts of my life,” says the pianist, fine artist and writer. “The seminary is teaching me how to mesh the two. In my head it was either one or the other, and so this opportunity jumped out at me.”

Her mother, Shoshana Goldsmith, says she wanted to send her daughter to a seminary where she could develop her artistic talents and also nurture her spiritual growth.

“There’s a crisis today that education is not meeting our needs,” says Goldsmith. “Tzohar caters to the needs of every person. You don’t have to fit into their mold; they’re just enhancing what you already have.”

“Our hopes in creating the Tzohar Seminary are to show girls they can find a place within their world to use their talents, and that they are meant to use them to communicate Torah and Chasidic thought to a greater audience and open a world where creativity is used for the service of G‑d,” says Guterson. “I believe women are leading the way.”

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28 Comments

  • great!

    WOW! I wish this seminary was around when my daughter was of seminary age. Hatzlocha Rabba!!!

  • very nice

    this really is awesome, but this would never happen for boys. girls are always getting the better side of the coin when it comes to education, almost all lubavitch girls high schools have english courses.

  • C. Rivka

    We desperately need something like this in Crown Heights for our children. This could save so many young girls and boys from going off the derech. Not everyone fits the Yeshiva mold, and to have an artistic outlet for those that don’t could literally be a lifesaver! There have been some nice new music/dance schools opening up, but they can be impossibly overpriced for parents already paying Yeshiva tuition, and struggling to get by. If anyone is interested in helping, I have a great idea for a non-profit “Crown Heights Center for the Arts.” Perhaps we could get in touch through the website?

  • C. Rivka

    We desperately need something like this in Crown Heights for our children. This could save so many young girls and boys from going off the derech. Not everyone fits the Yeshiva mold, and to have an artistic outlet for those that don’t could literally be a lifesaver! There have been some nice new music/dance schools opening up, but they can be impossibly overpriced for parents already paying Yeshiva tuition, and struggling to get by. If anyone is interested in helping, I have a great idea for a non-profit “Crown Heights Center for the Arts.” Perhaps we could get in touch through the website?

  • LOVE IT!!!!!

    I love it : academics and something more. Would love to see the creative portion of such a program connected to a college so the girls could come out with actual college credit/certification. Regardless, all our seminary tuitions are sadly out of reach for too many families. Think how positively girls can be influenced in such an environment, how many lives can be turned around-too many lose out because it’s unaffordable. What a shame!!!

  • Shoshana

    What a great idea for a school to combine the arts with Chasidism! I have had the pleasure of hearing Rivka Eilfort sing. She is awesome! I am looking forward to going to another one of her concerts!

  • #12

    C. Rivka, we definitely should talk!! To #7, I disagree, the boys already have established alternative programs, think Wilkes -Barre, JETS-CA, etc. Girls are just beginning to get the alternative programs….B”H…

  • Levi

    good idea, but in my opinion, the single year set aside for seminary doesn’t allow for this. Without knowing I cannot say, but my impression from this article is that the focus is art ‘while still being chassidish’. I think there is room for a post seminary school of this kind offering torah and art classes for one two or three years and a degree on the other side. But when parents allow their kids to indulge their taste for music right out of school, the torah will automatically take a back seat.

  • California Mom

    A great logical extension from Robin Garbose’s Kol Neshama program which provides a lot of the same opportunities in a summer camp program here in California. These two ladies are doing great things, providing such a necessary venue for the gifts Hashem has given our daughters. Yesher Koach!

  • hadassah joseph

    the picture of you chaya joseph is amazing,you are amazing. keep up the good work. love mom