If it is to grow, change, and thrive, every new or emerging culture needs to see itself. Whether in film, comic strips, or novels, all artists worth anything will tell you that works-of-art can help a culture to take account of itself: where it’s come from, where it’s at, and where it’s going to. That said, I think its imperative that people who ‘return to Judaism’ (Baal Teshuva) – like myself – see themselves. And I’m not alone.
Chad Derrick, a Toronto filmmaker, shared this need as he too was in the process of return. And as a part of his understanding what it all means to be a Baal Teshuva, he decided, after meeting and talking with my wife at a Matisyahu concert, that I would be a good subject for a documentary. Chad, initially, was interested in filming me because I was a Baal Teshuva who started a band named Men With Babies. The band was just starting to enter into the Toronto Music Scene and there was a lot of excitement in the air. But my back-story and my Jewish-music-project were not like Matisyahu or YLove’s; on the contrary, my story was very simple and yet very complicated. I did not grow up in or around NYC. And my life was far from normal.
Read More: @ frumsatire.net
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