"pop art rabbi" to be featured on Oprah
By Warren Cooper/NJN Publishing
BASKING RIDGE — The youth rabbi at Chabad Community Center will appear tonight, Monday, Feb. 13 on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” — both for his art and for mounting an impromptu one-week exhibit of Chassidic art in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights this past fall.
Rabbi Yitzchok Moully displayed 40 works created by 29 Chassidic artists ranging in age from 13 to 80 during a week-long exhibit in space he rented on an inspiration after Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, in October.
“I was looking to help foster and showcase the incredible creativity within the observant (Jewish) community,” he said.
The week coincided with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, during which Jews traditionally eat and sleep in a sukkah, a temporary dwelling with a thatched roof.
At the time, crews from Oprah’s show were in the neighborhood shooting a segment on the Chassidic community in Brooklyn.
“They found us,” Moully said, and were intrigued. One thing led to another, he said. “The hand of God involved in making this happen is humbling.”
First Look: America's Hidden Culture, Part 1
For the first time ever, Oprah travels to Brooklyn, New York, to meet two Hasidic Jewish families, who lift the veil, revealing the secrets to their usually private and mysterious way of life.
Watch a sneak preview of Oprah's visit to Brooklyn. Then tune in Sunday, February 12, at 9/8c to watch the all-new episode of Oprah's Next Chapter. Find OWN on your TV service provider
Another feature of the Sukkot is the tradition of inviting guests, and celebrations can last well into the night. Moully’s gallery was officially opened until 2 a.m., but, he said, “People kept coming in and we couldn’t close the doors until 4.”
Moully creates pop and abstract silk screen pieces. One hangs in the halls of the Chassidic Community Center. Others can be seen on his website (moullyart.com) where he also blogs about Chassidic art.
The Basking Ridge resident is the co-director of the center’s Hebrew School and mentors Bar and Bat Mitzvah students. He’s been an artist all his life, he said, first as a photographer. After it took him a year to create his first silk screen, he said, “There was no turning back.”
For Moully, art is an extension of rabbinical work. His subject matter is Chassidic Judaism. “My aim is to fuse the timeless beauty of Judaism with the modern attitudes of this world.”
To that end, he created “Ritual Objects,” a series of works that set side by side traditional old-school Jewish objects and their contemporary counterparts: paired images of a Kiddush wine cup with a martini glass, Shabbat candles with a Zippo lighter.
To connect with God, Moully said, one doesn’t need the traditional object. “One can make Kiddush with a martini glass or light candles with a Zippo.”
“God isn’t just in synagogue on Shabbos,” he said. God is in one’s office during the work week, “and at a Super Bowl party as well.”
He also sees his work as a way to stimulate “dialogue,” he said. “People see me on the street with a beard (and a pink yarmulke) and do not see any common ground. They feel at a distance.” He wants to reach out to others through his art.
“The world and its objects are here to be used as a tool to connect with God,” Moully said.