The Arthodox: Freedom of Choosing Restriction

Screening and Discussion

Brooklyn Public Library

Central Library, Information Commons, 10 Grand Army Plaza

September 21, 7-8:30pm

The film Arthodox directed by Gaby Steiner explores the two different life concepts of Efroim (Seth) Snyder, a New York visual artist from a secular Jewish background who adopted the Hasidic life style as a young adult. It probes his search for identity and the influence of his religious commitment on his artistic life: What relation is there between the human need for order and rules and the necessity for disorder to avoid unproductive rigor?

The life practice of the Orthodox community according to Jewish law shapes daily life which is at times meticulously structured and governed largely by traditional rules and rituals regarding things such as clothing, food and prayer. It appears in the contemporary and accelerated, medial organized daily life of the majority of society as antithesis. The film visually charts the evolution of his personal identity, transformation and social reality. By his statement of a cultural difference Efroim is emancipating himself from Western consumer society and materialism culture. His embrace of Orthodoxy can be read as a rejection of the social conventions of mainstream society. The project presents a dialogue between the filmmaker Gaby Steiner, a Gentile woman and Efroim, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, and intimate footage about his early life as a Hasid. The subject is both unusual and provocative. Their encounter requires each to confront the way they live their lives. The challenges they each faced (e.g. the prohibitions on men and women in public and private space) is both a unique part of the project and its thematic core.