Mazal Tov: Jewish Ceremonies in Times of Pandemic, 2020

The work was produced as part of the “Young Urban Photographers” program of the National Museum of Anthropology in Spain

This series is a documentation of Jewish 'rite of passage' ceremonies, that were conducted between the first and the second waves of the pandemic in Israel, between June and August 2020.

Rituals, myths, ceremonies, and symbolism are an essential part of the human experience, hence they have long been a cornerstone of anthropological thought. Rite of passage is a cultural, religious, or secular ritual that occurs when an individual is achieving a new status, thus entering into a new phase in the social structure. In this work, I have tracked and visually documented four Jewish rites of passage ceremonies, that symbolize the Jewish circle of life from circumcision to funeral.  Despite the alarming reality due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the new roles, measures, and restrictions that were introduced to the public, I was interested to explore how these rites of passage- and how the circle of life, keeps rolling. I wished to track the precautions that were taken and the adaptations were made. I explored how tradition met the peculiar, limiting reality. I wished to examine how the private 'liminality' phase in rituals meets the collective social 'liminality' of the pandemic, where uncertainties, social distancing, masks and technology are in fact incorporated in our day-to-day lives, changing the way we used to interact and perform ceremonies and rituals.