Students being trained to become orthodox rabbis are also being trained to become filmmakers. Can orthodox observance and the world of film and cinema coexist?
Israeli Salad, IsraelNN TV’s weekly culture magazine, visits The Torat Hachayim School for Jewish Cinema and Media located in Yad Binyamin, east of Ashdod. The staff of the Torat Hachayim Rabbinical Seminary (yeshiva) decided that video is a tool that must be used for the sake of increasing spirituality in the world.
Can't see video? Click here.
Uri Groder, one of the teachers in the yeshiva told IsraelNN TV: "With cinema you can reach deep levels and bring out emotions – you can make a person cry or laugh. The emotions are stronger when a person sees a picture and hears sound. And so, cinema is very spiritual."
"Many people are thirsty, thirsty for Judaism – and they don't know where to get it,” explains Groder. “The easiest way to spread Judaism to many people together, nicely and pleasantly, is through this media – and this is what we want to do, with G-d's help."