Eitan Gutenmacher is Designing a New Jewish Expression

Eitan Gutenmacher, a Jewish student at NYU Gallatin and a co-founder of Havurah, sat down with Hillel International to discuss community design, Jewish thought, and life on campus. Below are transcriptions from the conversation, edited for clarity.

For as long as Judaism has existed, we have created art as a means to engage with our tradition.

I grew up in a somewhat enclosed modern-Orthodox community, and a big part of my college life has been forming friendships in a variety of Jewish spaces that were entirely new to me. At NYU, it often feels like the entire Jewish world fits into one building. It’s sort of comical and also fits into typical New York fashion– our Hillel is quite literally a townhouse. Being a part of Hillel at NYU showed me that the entire Jewish world can actually fit into one building, as long as it’s done right.

During a trip back to Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem, the school where I spent my gap year, I found myself constantly thinking about the role of the arts in the Jewish community in Israel, and the endless ways that Judaism and Jewish identity is expressed there. When I came back home to New York, it was again difficult to form the exact image of the Jewish community that I was seeking.

So, I started asking myself what I was missing, and what I needed to bring back with me, and after getting some incredible people on board, Havurah was born.

As our manifesto states, “Havurah is a community of Jewish creatives who see art as a mechanism for engaging with the Divine and as a crucial part of Jewish spiritual practice.” We see the experience of Judaism as a creative force in and of itself, and its endless capabilities as a medium and form of expression.

In many ways, Judaism has always guided my art.

“I see my work as engaging with an intergenerational conversation. I truly believe something holy can occur on PhotoShop.”

After starting Havurah, though, I’ve been able to make art in ways I never imagined I would before. The process of developing Havurah has been like a collaborative project in many ways, but in my own work for the brand, the design experience has been eye-opening.

When I visually design a Havurah event poster, it often mirrors the experience design for that event as well. Working on Havurah is very much just an exercise in design, and designing for the Jewish world. “What does the Jewish world need? How do I design that?” I see the designers role in Jewish communities as a crucial, and often overlooked, need for the development of our practice. Call it community design, service design, social technology–whatever works. I see it all as design.

“Just like learning Gemara is engaging with an active conversation of our tradition, creating Jewish art is engaging in that same conversation — just through a different medium.”

Since October 7, I’ve thought more and more about what our Jewish community looks like, and how it must operate. Our communal response to that tragic day has shown the need for Jewish communities that are designed to sustain themselves, to keep themselves going even when times are hard. I believe that intentional community design is essential to the Jewish future, and key to helping our world thrive.