ABOUT TZOHAR
Tzohar empowers talented young Jewish women toward personal, spiritual and creative growth through the integrated study of Torah and the Arts.
The Hebrew word “Tzohar” symbolizes the goals of our program. In Genesis 6:16, G-d asks Noah to build an ark with a “Tzohar”. The biblical commentator Rashi explains that “Tzohar” has two meanings: 1) a window or skylight to let light in; and, 2) a gem that shines light outward. Tzohar Seminary is predicated on the ideal that by allowing the light of creativity into our students' lives, they will use their unique talents to make the world brighter and more beautiful.
Our Lived Core Values
Mission and Purpose: Tzohar exists for its students — our mission is in the service of helping each student find and apply her purpose and talents within Yiddishkeit.
Curiosity and Openness: Growth requires openness – approaching Torah, others, and self with genuine curiosity rather than judgment.
Self-Expression: The arts give students the tools and structure for creative self-expression -- where the creative process itself leads to deeper self-discovery, offering an opportunity for each student’s unique commentary on the Torah.
Ownership and Growth: True personal growth means moving from "this is how it's done" to responsibility and ownership for one’s own journey.
Loving Care: Tzohar cares for its students the way a loving home would — with attention, warmth, and devotion.
Connection: Real growth happens through relationships — with students, families, friends, oneself, Torah, and G-d — built on trust and agency rather than control.
PROGRAM OUTCOMES
By the end of the school year, students have discovered a unique perspective and developed skill set that provides a foundation for their continued growth and success.
Students leave their year at Tzohar Seminary with confidence in their unique talents and the desire to use those talents to make positive change.
Since 2011 Tzohar Seminary has empowered close to 300 young women to become agents of change for themselves and for their future families and communities. Our students emerge with greater self-confidence, interpersonal skills, and a sense of mission and responsibility.
Many graduates are currently involved with arts-related careers where they are having a significant impact including a lighting artist at Netflix Animation Studios, a museum gallery curator, a designer of prosthetics, art therapists, professional writers and photographers (including one featured in Vogue magazine), filmmakers, and singer/songwriters. Our Tzohar students are in the forefront of a movement to make creative expression a vital part of Jewish communities everywhere.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH ARTISTS
Excerpt from a letter from 1951: "As you are surely aware, the primary talent of an artist is his ability to step away from the externalities of the thing and, disregarding its outer form, gaze into its innerness and perceive its essence, and to be able to convey this in his painting. Thus the object is revealed as it has never before been seen, since its inner content was obscured by secondary things. The artist exposes the essence of the thing he portrays, causing the one looking at the painting to perceive it in another, truer light, and to realize that his prior perception was deficient. And this is one of the foundations of man's service of his Creator."
Excerpt from a letter from 1968: "The point is that those who have been divinely gifted in art, whether sculpture or painting and the like, have the privilege of being able to convert an inanimate thing, such as a brush, paint and canvas, or wood and stone, etc., into living form.
(From the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson)
In a deeper sense, it is the ability to transform to a certain extent the material into spiritual, even where the creation is in still life, and certainly where the artistic work has to do with living creatures and humans. How much more so if the art medium is used to advance ideas, especially reflecting Torah and Mitzvot, which would raise the artistic skill to its highest level."
