DIY Passover with Jewish Studio Project

This conversation was hosted as part of our series, “DIY Passover with _____” in which Recustom’s partnerships manager, Jessica, interviewed different Jewish communal organizations about the many ways to personalize the Passover seder. Read on for her conversation with Rabbi Adina Allen from Jewish Studio Project about creativity at the seder table. 

At Recustom, we provide tools to DIY Jewish rituals, including Passover Haggadahs. Our full content library is free to explore here. And, you can learn more about how to get creative with Jewish Studio Project here. 

Jessica: To start, could you share who you are and how your work fits into Jewish Studio Project’s mission?

Rabbi Adina Allen: I’m the cofounder and creative director of Jewish Studio Project. I cofounded the organization with my spouse Jeff Kasowitz almost 10 years ago. It started with just the two of us and now we’re a staff of 13 people across the country. My work is focused on thought leadership, directing creative content, our training program and the overall vision of the organization. 

Jessica: What is the Jewish Studio Process? What makes the process Jewish and how is it connected to getting creative around ritual?

Rabbi Adina Allen: The Jewish Studio Process takes the methodology of the Open Studio Process, which is used in communities around the world and was developed by my mom, Dr. Pat B. Allen, who is a world leader in art therapy. Open Studio Process was a methodology I grew up doing, and when I was in rabbinical school I brought the process of chevruta (partnered) learning into the Open Studio Process, which is the core part of what makes it Jewish, in addition to an explicitly spiritual framework. 

I grew up in an art studio. The art studio was the biggest room in our house in suburban Chicago and it was the place where all parts of yourself were welcome. Art making was offered to me from a young age as a way to explore parts of the self that were less close to the surface: To explore questions about the world, anxieties, difficulties, struggles. To process and make sense of the world. And, at the time I didn’t have the language, but to access and bring in something bigger and beyond the self, which I would now call G-d. Art making was always offered to me as an exploratory personal discovery process, as opposed to something oriented towards making a specific thing. And, I grew up alongside my mom who was tending to that force within herself.

In rabbinical school, I brought the Open Studio Process into my study. It’s a simple and profound methodology of intention setting, art making, and witness writing (writing in response to the art and the process of creating it). I brought that process into the Beit Midrash at Hebrew College when I was in rabbinical school, feeling a couple of things. One, that we are so blessed in the Jewish tradition to have this rich lineage of text and the invitation to bring ourselves to the text. And, I felt that the process of intellectual inquiry, while super impactful and engaging and powerful, was leaving so much on table. We’re engaging the intellect, but there’s so many parts of self that the information isn’t able to drop down and mix with. The process of art making following text study allows us to elongate the process of learning. It allows the text to drop down into other parts of the self and allows for things that were less readily available to come to the forefront. Our own unique insights, interpretations, stories, memories, and not to limit our interpretations to be what’s “smart” or what we’ve heard before, but what is rich and meaningful and that is touching something right now. I think of it as an almost alchemical process that’s able to happen when this imaginative art making exploratory process is brought in and held together with the intellectual process.

Jessica: I’m thinking about the Jewish Studio Process in the context of the modality of the Passover seder. What does the opportunity of being at a communal table present creatively? 

Rabbi Adina Allen: For Passover I love how there is this preparatory period before, then the eight days of the holiday, and then the counting of the Omer following. There's this elongation of time, it’s not just about these two seder moments. How do we both prepare for and integrate the themes of Passover throughout this time, especially because it’s so thematically rich? 

Tradition teaches that it’s a mitzvah to elaborate on the telling of the Passover story. I think that bringing the Jewish Studio Process into the seder, could be an incredible way to elaborate the telling of the story. To unpack what parts are missing and identify the ways it touches us today. 

I also think it’s really useful in preparation for Passover. There’s so much symbology to pull from. Our most recent Passover prompt is about the search for chametz , which has many psychological parallels. Art making can be really useful in understanding what those parallels might mean in our lives. We’re not only doing the ritual, but allowing the ritual to touch us on an emotional level.

Jessica: I see a parallel too that I imagine many folks experience, between having doubts about being “Jewish enough” to facilitate Jewish tradition like a Passover seder and being “creative enough” to make art or call oneself an artist. By design, the Jewish Studio Process is so accessible, allowing anyone to step into that creativity. What advice do you have for hosts in honing their creativity to access their leadership ability? 

Rabbi Adina Allen: I think that doing the process with any of the seder’s symbols will inevitably bring forth new teachings that you can then offer those at your seder table. Not just because you learned it from someone else, but will be uniquely your own and speak to this specific moment, which I think is really what Passover calls us to. Not to just repeat what's been done in the past, but to let something new come forth today. 

It’s beautiful to claim your role and your power and your connection to G-d. That, given your unique life experience, you have something relevant and meaningful to offer that is needed. It’s not secondary or less than, it’s exactly what’s needed today. 

The reason why these stories last generationally and why Torah continues to be studied is because we’re of a practice that interpretations get to be added to over and over again and held. Otherwise, it would ossify and die. So, you’re doing exactly what is called upon to honor tradition, by bringing something new or how something strikes you today. This particular moment in the world is an especially intense one, where the themes of Passover resonate totally differently than a year ago. Finding those touchpoints for yourself is both personally healing and a gift to offer people at your table.

Jessica: What advice do you have for seder hosts on curating an atmosphere where attendees engage with what's being offered? 

Rabbi Adina Allen: Give questions ahead of time so that they have time to percolate. Extend the same framework we just discussed to your guests, we’re all needed and part of this project. Having chevruta moments throughout the seder, and inviting folks to unpack with their neighbor. There is so much to choose from content wise, so I’d pick three things that really resonate this year that you want to go deep into. Lean into the questions of the seder: curiosity is in short supply these days and Passover calls us to it. As much as teaching your insight, try to really embrace curiosity. 

There are so many different ways to read Torah and these stories. Some people are really interested in if events ‘really’ happened: Did the sea split? How can we look at that event scientifically or historically, etc. All those lenses are powerful and useful. But, I think one of the most central ways to read is to pull from aspects that already exist within ourselves. This isn’t just a story that happened to our ancestors, it's as if each one of us is going through this. Art making with the Jewish Studio Process and the prompts we’ve developed encourage folks to take these stories into themselves on a metaphorical level. Like, the ocean outside my window isn’t probably going to split, but what does that metaphor mean? Of a parth coming to be, when before there was no way. How am I feeling that in my own or communal life? And what can dropping into the portal of time that Passover offers and dropping into my own self, offer?

Jessica: I’m thinking about the inextricable nature of creativity from themes like survival and liberation, that are central to the Passover story. Is there a teaching moment there?

Rabbi Adina Allen: I was just reading a teaching from one of my teachers, Rabbi Ebn Leader who is drawing upon Hasidic sources about how the redemption wasn’t earned, it was grace. It’s not something we had to train for, it’s not something we did to get it, but it’s something that flowed and came to us, like creativity which is inherent in every single one of us. You don’t have to get a degree in creativity, it’s just part of you in being human. We can practice opening up the pathway, but it already exists within each of us. I think that’s our access point and connection to G-d. 

I was thinking about the metaphor of Nahshon, and taking that risk of going into the sea. I think about that often with creativity. It’s about just getting in and taking that risk and seeing what opens up for you. A mark on a page, a color on a sheet, a shape that you’ve never done before...

Liberation begins in a process of imagination, in imagining what else might be. Creativity stimulates imagination. The Passover story starts with the four different cries of the Israelites, then G-d responds to each of those cries and that’s when the process of liberation begins. It teaches us to touch upon our own emotions: our sadness, anger, fear, and to tend to what those emotions are for ourselves, then start to open the path forward. If we’re not doing that and just focusing outward, nothing will ever change. It has to both be an inward and outward reflective process, which Passover happens to offer us. Creativity can be a way to identify what is hurting and what has started to harden over. If the antithesis of what we want is the Pharaoh and the hard and heavy heart, then how can we create a soft, supple beating heart? I think creativity is at the core of that.

Explore creative prompts for Passover from Jewish Studio Project here and even more Passover content to DIY your seder on Recustom.com.