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In early April, renowned artist David Moss spent five days as MILTON’s artist in residence, leading a series of workshops and talks with students, parents, and staff. David Moss is known primarily for the Moss Haggadah, a handmade Haggadah created in the style of medieval illuminated manuscripts. The work has since been re-printed and serves not only as a ritual item but one that prompts deeper learning and study.

Moss is also known for his leadership in transforming the ketubah back from a standard marriage form to a meaningful piece of art. While ketubot were decorative for centuries, this had largely fallen out of practice and Moss led the initiative to revive this tradition, leading to a thriving ketubah illustration industry. These are just two of Moss’s many artistic endeavors which often relate to deepening our relationship with Jewish texts and transforming Jewish spaces.

All students in Grades 5-8 and two groups of parents participated in the workshops. Additionally, Moss led the alumni from the class of 2024 in creating a collaborative art installation, and gave a presentation about his work to both staff and President’s Circle donors. The President’s Circle event also included a panel discussion with Moss and Ambassador Alfred Moses.

Workshops

Student and parent workshops began with a presentation of the Moss Haggadah. Moss discussed the process that went into creating the Haggadah, diving into the background of several individual pages and using them to prompt further reflection on the ideas they depicted. Participants were in awe of the meticulously created pages, their symbols and often interactive nature, and the meanings they were able to derive from discussion with Moss.

Then, Moss guided participants in creating small booklets to use at their own seders. These were based on his Siman Tov Seder project, a set of fifteen booklets based on themes derived from each step of the seder. Themes include growth (connected to karpas), giving/receiving (connected to motzi), community (connected to shulchan orech), and acceptance (connected to nirtzah). Each booklet contains a set of questions, a poem, and a collage related to its theme, meant to stimulate lively discussion between participants at the seder table.

In pairs, participants were assigned themes and discussed their meanings, applied them to their daily lives, and brainstormed discussion questions. Then individually they compiled their books, using paper scraps to make collages.

Class of 2024 Art Installation

Members of the Class of 2024 met with Moss to create their class art installation for display at school, a tradition that each graduating class participates in. Participants learned about different Jewish communities around the world. Moss then led a deep dive into his collage work, exploring how layered shapes can convey different meanings.

Students split into groups and created their own disc-shaped collages, each representing a different Jewish community. The collage discs will be combined into a mobile, representing unity among Jews around the world.

Panel

Moss and Ambassador Moses participated in a panel discussion about Jewish art, moderated by South Campus Sadnah instructor Rachel Farbiarz. Together, they discussed the significance and meaning of Jewish art, its relationship to Jewish peoplehood, and the importance of maintaining art and items from material culture through the years. Ambassador Moses also discussed his purchase of the Codex Sassoon, one of the oldest existing manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, for display at ANU, Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. He connected this to the larger discussion of materiality, art, and its significance to Jewish life and community today.