arts&life
books
Do Not
Photograph
Photographer Joshua Haruni
documents everyday life in a Chasidic
community in Israel.
ROB STREIT JN INTERN
T
he cloistered world of Chasidic Judaism is one
that seems inaccessible to the uninitiated. The
sect is steeped in tradition and maintains strict
adherence to its tenets. Outsiders are rarely — if
ever — afforded a glimpse into its lives and religious
practices.
Photographer Joshua Haruni pulls
back the curtain of Chasidic and
Kabbalistic communities in his book
Do Not Photograph. The London-born
Haruni captured the images over the
course of eight years after receiv-
ing permission from the leader of
the Pinsk-Karlin Chasidic sect in
Jerusalem. “Do not photograph”
was a common refrain heard from
the Chasidim.
“Imagine then my presence at
Chasidic functions,” Haruni writes
in the book’s introduction. “Arriving unannounced
nannounced
with two camera bodies swinging wildly from my neck
and a camera bag, with which I must have toppled over
numerous articles of incalculable religious value.”
The 90-plus photographs put readers squarely in
the intimate spaces of the community. They are vibrant
and lively, but most of the images had languished in
Haruni’s personal archive since 2003. The photogra-
pher ran into his former printer, Danny Chau, and the
pair reviewed his past work. They digitally scanned the
noticed what Haruni calls an “ageless
archive and no
quality” to the work.
“In order to enhance this effect,
I asked Danny to add color digitally
t to the images, which I originally shot
in black and white, as a tribute to the
h hand painting of early 19th-century
photographs,” Haruni writes.
ph
The coloring treatment makes readers
feel as if they are peering into the past.
fee
Shortly after, Haruni was approached by
Sho
Jerusalem’s Israel Museum to participate
Jeru
in an exhibition. Do Not Photograph was
published in response to the positive feed-
publ
back Haruni received.
Haruni initially set out to capture images of the
resurgent belief in “practical Kabbalah.”
“I wanted to explore the renewed faith in this eso-
teric belief system amongst mainstream Israeli-Jewish
society,” Haruni writes. “Ultimately, the dynamic of that
project generated numerous leads into photographing
the Chasidic way of life, which in turn evolved into a
separate project altogether.”
Haruni’s book shows a community that seems to
hold on to the past, but he bucks against this notion.
“Rather than being confined to history, however,
the past continues to serve as the benchmark against
which Chasidim assess the modern world,” Haruni
writes.
Israel National News’ Rochel Sylvetsky says Do Not
Photograph succeeds in what the book sets out to do.
“There is no question that Mr. Haruni took on a
daunting and unimaginable challenge in a community
where anyone with a camera soon hears someone
shouting the words ‘Do not photograph!’ When after
two years of patient perseverance, he received permis-
sion to photograph … he made us all the richer for it,”
Sylvetsky says.
Each image is a slice of Chasidic life. But Haruni says
the book is not intended to be an all-encompassing
report on the community.
“This book does not tell a story,” he writes. “But I like
to think that the images contain their own narrative.” •
KIDS/YOUNG ADULT
TRAVEL
• Almost a Minyan (SocioSight), by Lori S. Kline with illustrations by Susan Simon,
is a coming-of-age story about a girl who takes her grandfather’s place in their town’s
prayer quorum as part of the minyan and coming to terms with his death.
• After being liberated from a Nazi concentration camp, Gerta finds herself alone,
grieving and struggling to give meaning to her Jewish identity. Vesper Stamper’s richly
illustrated debut, What the Night Sings (Knopf Books for Young Readers), follows the
heroine as she rediscovers music, falls in love and builds a future.
• What better way to tell a tale of swashbuckling, pirate treasure and the Spanish
Inquisition than through the voice of a 500-year-old Jewish parrot? In Gary Barwin’s
Yiddish for Pirates, readers follow Moishe, a bar mitzvah boy-turned-buccaneer and
his parrot Aaron as they flee Spain, find love and search for the Fountain of Youth.
• Since 1992, noted travel writer
Ben Frank has been guiding
both first-time and experienced
European travelers to local
Jewish neighborhoods and sites
in his book A Travel Guide
to Jewish Europe (Pelican).
Just updated and expanded,
a new edition is even more
indispensable. From kosher
dining in France to memorials
in Scandinavia, A Travel Guide
combines practical informa-
tion, intriguing stories and an inves-
tigation into Jewish contributions
to European history. “More than a
guidebook,” writes the San Francisco
Examiner, “it is a fascinating, candid,
and ultimately uplifting testament
to the enduring spirit of a people.”
• In Jewish London: A
Comprehensive Guidebook for
Visitors and Londoners (Fox
46
June 21 • 2018
jn
Chapel), Jewish historians and tour
guides Rachel Kolsky and Roslyn
Rawson offer fascinating and prac-
tical information for discovering
Jewish London through the ages.
The book is packed with guided
walking tours, listings of kosher
restaurants and shops, day trips and
more. •
Rob Streit contributed to this story.