News + Views

During Passover last week, South Brooklyn Post photographer Joshua Kristal captured the tin foil tradition of four Crown Heights Lubavitch families.

From Josh:

During the Passover holiday, observant Jews go thru the laborious but important task of cleaning out all and any trace of “Chametz” (or leavened bread) from their home. And they get VERY intense about it, as one of the greatest religious transgressions is ingesting leavened bread during the holiday (all of this bread business relates to the story of the exodus of the Jews fleeing Egypt with Moses and not having time to wait for their bread to rise, so only unleavened bread of “matzoh” can be eating for the entire holiday).  

I attended a passover seder in a Lubavitch family home whose kitchen was covered in tin-foil. I made my way back a couple of days later and shot in the homes of four families. They cover the bookshelves, the entire kitchen cabinets, stove, etc., to make sure any sort of crumb doesn’t mix with their food. At first what I mistook to be some sort of alien radar transmission set up turned out to be yet another modern day incarnation of an ancient tradition.