Biennial Photo Contest: Congratulations to the Winners!
November 18, 2009 
8 Comments
Our contest yielded some fantastic entries: photos that truly captured the spirit and excitement of the Biennial and the beautiful city of Toronto.
After sorting through over 400 entries, our web team and staff from URJ Books & Music voted… and here are the winners! A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated and shared their images.
Grand prize: Steve Medwin wins a Flip digital camcorder for “Torah Service“
Second prize: W Zimmerman wins a signed copy of Tina Wasserman’s new cookbook Entree to Judaism for his entry, “Kippah Collage“
Runners-up: Joy Weinberg. Ros Schwartz, Emily Goodstein, Kate Bigam, and Emilia Diamant will also receive prizes.
See their photos and the slideshow of all entries below…
Joy Weinberg. Biennial Toronto Shabbat Worship
Ros Schwartz, URJ Books & Music Grand Opening 
Emily Goodstein, Bag of Shofars
Kate Bigam, RAC Staff at Dan Nichols show
Emilia Diamant, faithJAM
All entries:
Glad the winners were all actual Biennial shots, not just Toronto scenery — although I’ll admit that being greeted each day by the woodpecker was a treat.
My favorite: the collage of kipot. Where do we get the white ones with the blue URJ menorah logo in the back?
Love the photo of Julie, Dan and Doug – ongoing generations of modern Jewish music!
The grand prize winner is a real winner! Great shot!
Great pictures and the kipot was my favourite
too bad there is not a good picture of the volunteers in their red shirts..
The Kippah Collage was my fav too. It’s a natural for a URJ poster.
To Larry K:
The one with the URJ logo was given out at the marketplace…can’t remember which booth. I have an extra one if you want it.
The kipot collage would have more accurately reflected both the heritage and diversity of our Reform Movement by having depicted at least one head uncovered…the fact remains that the majority of delegates – as well as the majority of members of our congregations – continue to choose not to observe this practice, and uphold what historically has been one of Reform Judaism’s distinctive liberal, non-ritualistic traditions. The same could be said for those who chose to stand proudly and reverently for the recitation of the Shema, and to praise God’s name aloud with the Baruch Shem, despite the implication that in these instances too, historic Reform minhag was being abandoned in favor of “tradition”…what about our own tradition as Reform Jews?
Had the kipot collage left one head uncovered, it would no longer have been a collage of kipot. Is it appropriate to second-guess an artist’s intention for the sake of a religious polemic?
And if the Reform movement stopped innovating, it would no longer be Reform, but would turn into a Reformed movement, an Orthodoxy of its own, saying that because we stood yesterday, we must stand forever. (Precisely the reverse of Reform’s origins, which rejected many of the practices of its day.)
As someone who did not divert his attention from the worship experience to count either bare heads or covered heads, I can neither question nor confirm the assertion that the majority of delegates to the Biennial chose to worship bare-headed. Whatever choice Reform Jews make, whether at the Biennial or in most Reform synagogues, is based on an even more cherished Reform tradition, personal autonomy.
It used to be a Reform watchword, as a put-down of the kosher laws, that what comes out of your mouth is more important than what goes in. Might we update that to suggest that what’s in your head is more important than what’s on it?
I think that’s me under the URJ logo kippah. They were given away by http://www.tovaembroidery.com