Bronwen and Nicole first met while students in the artists’ beit midrash program of The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York City. In 2008, 15 years ago, this program was innovative because it specifically offered women the opportunity to be fully funded in a rigorous program of Jewish learning while developing an art practice interlaced with that learning, culminating in the public presentation of new, innovative works of Jewish art. That program inspired both Nicole and Bronwen to pursue rabbinic ordination with a focus on cultivating public-facing Jewish art both in and outside of the synagogue. Unfortunately Drisha closed down its artists’ beit midrash program in 2012 and this has left a significant gap in the Jewish world where Torah and art are learned side-by-side.

From 2014-2019, Rabbi Bronwen has led multiple artists’ beit midrash, working with nearly 70 artists to generate an incredible spectrum of contemporary work, including existentialist excerpts of a performance clown on Pirkei Avot– Chapters of the Fathers (Roseanne Wenick 2016) an electro-pop opera based on the Book of Esther (Miky van der Nahmer 2017), and an immersive art installation with 12 feet-tall replications of skin and scarring from the Book of Job (Monica Seldow 2018). 

Since 2019, Rabbi Nicole Fix has been building a rabbinate at the intersection of Jewish engagement and art. As a Rabbinic Apprentice at the Center for Small Town Jewish Life in Maine and at Temple Beth El Augusta, she launched a state-wide project for Maine artists to develop creative interpretations of the Passover Haggadah. The works were showcased at Maine synagogues and at the state-wide Jewish conference. Nicole co-wrote a dramatic interpretation of the Hanna story for multi-disciplinary performance throughout the High Holidays and created a unique video liturgy for the Martyrology Service during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her novel-in-progress is inspired by her maternal grandmother and Depression-era Jewish communities in Central New York.