Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art

Contemporary Jewish art is a growing field that includes traditional as well as new creative practices, yet criticism of it is almost exclusively reliant on the Second Commandment’s prohibition of graven images. Arguing that this disregards the corpus of Jewish thought and a century of criticism and interpretation, Ben Schachter advocates instead a new approach focused on action and process.

Departing from the traditional interpretation of the Second Commandment, Schachter addresses abstract...