In the 1960s, the world became captivated by the possibility of landing on the moon. Today, the space race has refocused on a new frontier: Mars. But if, or perhaps when, humans do journey to Mars, what will Jewish life look like?
Rabbi Mordechai and Chana Lightstone, co-founders of Tech Tribe—a center for Jews in the technology and digital-media industries, and an affiliate of Chabad Young Professionals—are not only posing this question but exploring some possible answers. Tech Tribe is known for producing innovative and varied events like #openShabbat, an annual Shabbat meal at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, and Chanukah parties that showcase a plethora of unique menorahs, including one made with a 3D printer, one with animated GIFs on it, and last year, one that incorporated augmented reality.
Tech Tribe’s newest project, though, is literally out of this world. “Jews in Space: An artistic exploration of Jewish life on Mars” is “a proof of concept in how Judaism can be brought to the red planet,” Lightstone tells Chabad.org. “If Silicon Valley is set on colonizing Mars, we’re going to show how Judaism can thrive there.”
Funded by grants from the UJA Federation of New York, the Schusterman Foundation and Kamin Health, the project utilizes a hypothetical scenario to explore various issues, both practical and complex, relating to creating Jewish life on Mars. At the heart of the project is an art piece by Brooklyn-based artist, game designer and architect Nitzan Bartov, which will be exhibited at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum during Chanukah.
Bartov also designed the augmented-reality menorah last year for Tech Tribe. For Bartov, designing a piece of art for “Jews in Space” is the culmination of a passion project that she has been exploring for some time. She is currently designing and creating the art project.
“This is a multifaceted concept we are trying to address through speculative design work,” explains Bartov. “The work is trying to creatively capture the spirit of the project. Being a game designer and architect, I’m always trying to create work that considers the relationship between the digital and the physical. This work is going to be a mix of digital media—specifically, augmented reality—with a sculptural element. This piece aims to ignite public imagination around the ideas of community, culture and continuity on Mars, and suggests a complementary vision to that of the science community. Displaying the work at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum gives us an opportunity to expand our initial idea of ‘public,’ and contextualize the work to broaden the perspective and imagination of a child.”
Stephanie Wilchfort, president and CEO of the museum, told Chabad.org that the “Brooklyn Children’s Museum is delighted to host Jews in Space during the first week in December to celebrate Chanukah 2018. This exhibit is an incredibly creative and thoughtful way of sharing Jewish culture and traditions with our families from Brooklyn and beyond.”
Bartov’s artwork will be a visual and creative exploration of the time differential that exists between the earth and Mars, in terms of distance from family, earthly Jewish communities and Jerusalem. Another aspect taken into consideration is that a Martian day is 24 hours and 30 minutes, and a Martian year is approximately 600 days. This affects the schedule of the Jewish week and year as well. If one were to keep Shabbat every seven Martian days, over the course of several years, a few would be missed.
One inspiration for the project, says Lightstone, is something that the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—once told the late Dr. Velvel Greene, who in 1960 began working for NASA as part of the Planetary Quarantine Division, which was then charged with trying to find life on Mars. Greene recalled how the first time he met with the Rebbe privately, the newly observant scientist mentioned that he’d heard that searching for life on other planets wasn’t an appropriate field of study for an observant Jew. The Rebbe thought deeply for a few minutes and said, “Keep looking. To sit here, and not look, and say there is nothing out there, is placing a limit on G‑d’s creation. That you can’t do!”
Leading up to the exhibition itself, Tech Tribe will host a series of talks on the subject of Jews in space. There will be talks focusing on topics such as Judaism and Science Fiction, and an exploration of how Jewish law intersects with life in space. These events will give the public a more indepth view and enable them to connect the various concepts that the project explores. The timing is auspicious, as Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL prepares to launch an unmanned spacecraft to land on the moon. SpaceIL’s mission is twofold: to raise the Israeli flag on the moon for the first time and to carry out a Weizmann Institute of Science experiment to measure the moon’s magnetic field.
“It would be nice if when Israel got there, Chabad was already there to greet them,” jokes Lightstone.
On a more serious note, he adds, “Tech Tribe tries to help Jews explore Judaism in a language that speaks to them in a milieu in which they’re familiar. The overriding message is that Judaism is applicable wherever and whenever you are. You could be in a shtetl 300 years ago, you could be a Jew in Brooklyn today, or you could be a Jewish colonizer of Mars 100 years from now. You can always learn from Judaism, and apply the teachings and values to your life.”
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