Mira Z. Amiras is an anthropologist, author, and award-winning filmmaker. She was raised on her mother’s accounts of the Inquisition and Holocaust, her father’s tales of the creation and beauty of the universe, and her grandparents’ foods, folklore and music of ancient Sefarad. Mira has lived, studied, and traveled throughout the Middle East and North Africa, camped out 7,000 miles through Africa, and traveled overland from Istanbul to the Nepalese border. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and is Professor Emerita of Comparative Religion and Middle East Studies at San Jose State University. Mira is past president of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, and was a member of the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association. She lives in San Francisco with her family—witnessing the birth of new tales as we speak.

Josh Baum was born in London and grew up in Bristol. He studied painting at the Masana School in Barcelona then moved to Sfat to study in a Hasidic yeshivah where he trained as a Hebrew scribe. After writing a Torah scroll in Jerusalem, Josh attained an MA in Fine Art from Central St Martins in London, for which he was awarded the Future Map prize. In his work as both artist and scribe, he explores the Hebrew letters as sacred signs as well as objects of profound beauty. Josh is a published author and illustrator and lives in Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, where he is director of the art school.