Ben Schachter's "Who needs the second commandment when we have the fourth?"

Ben Schachter

Who needs the second commandment when we have the fourth?

A reframing of Jewish Aesthetics

Note: This paper was delivered on Monday, December 19, 2011 at the Association for Jewish Studies in Washington, DC.

Does Judaism really have a problem with art?  The prohibition against graven images found in the second commandment has colored our relationship with the visual arts for some time.  Even so, ‘graven images’ remains a convenient definitional tool.  But most of the time discussion begins and ends with the second commandment leaving the issue of art unresolved or meekly suggesting that the arts will always contain an idolatrous temptation.

Continue reading Schachter's paper here

Ben Schachter - Bergen County Eruv 2011

Ben Schachter is the Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, PA. View his art work of contemporary Jewish iconography at www.benschachter.com 

Schachter will exhibit at Silent Witnesses - Migration stories through Synagogues Transformed, Rebuilt, or Left Behind. February and March at the The Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus 

Farmington Hills, Metro Detroit, Michigan.

This collaborative event is organized by the Cultural Heritage Artist Project, the Jewish Art Salon, and JWalks.