Chabad's Youth Rabbi Reaches Out With Artwork as Well as Words

Rabbi Yitzchok Moully is the youth Rabbi at the in Basking Ridge. His responsibilities include the center's Hebrew School, Bar and Bat Mitzvah training, and running the teen group, among a variety of hats he wears.

After a full day at the center one would expect Moully, father of four, to relax a bit after getting the kids to sleep, but his form of relaxation takes on a different form. Moully is the creator of 'Jewish Pop Art' as he calls it: bright and bold colors depicting Jewish scenes and objects. Self taught, Moully has displayed his work in galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Denver, Melbourne and New Jersey.

For the second year in a row, Moully has planned Chabad's Jewish and Music Art Festival, planned for noon to 7 p.m. at the Chabad Jewish Center, at 3048 Valley Road. The festival is open to all in the community. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for children. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to the JMAFest website. 

What is a Rabbi doing spending his time painting? Moully said he uses his work painting to complement and even extend his rabbinical work.

He says, "As a Rabbi, one's reach goes only so far; people have to
be open to the idea and welcome engagement. Art, on the other hand,
has a wider draw; there is no heaviness. It is accessible for everyone
to relate and engage." Moully sees his art as a meaningful way to show
people the joy and life found in Judaism, and how it is accessible to
all.

Sitting with members of the community Moully said got the idea of fusing his two passions, by bringing people together to enjoy a day of Jewish culture — in the form of live music and art — on the Center's property. By celebrating Jewish creativity in such a setting the festival aims to bring everyone, even people who have never stepped foot into a Synagogue, to the Chabad center, so they can experience Judaism's openness.

The festival's goal is to make Judaism relevant in the form of four
live bands whose sound is not traditionally Jewish, and with
contemporary Jewish artists who each interpret and engage in a
dialogue of what Judaism means to them.

There is a little running joke between the center's spiritual leader,
Rabbi Mendy Herson, and Moully as to who can attract a bigger crowd:
Rabbi Herson on the High Holidays or Moully with the festival. The
Chabad Center gets 500-plus at High Holiday Services, and Rabbi Moully expects to far outpace that this year.

The festival is expecting 1500-plus people to come enjoy and engage their Judaism in a fun and enjoyable manner, he predicts.