Author and illustrator
Benjamin Morse grew up in Connecticut and Virginia. The son of a Hebrew Bible scholar, he studied religion and art history at Vassar College.
He later completed a master’s in biblical interpretation at Oxford University, a master’s in modern art at the Courtauld Institute in London, and a PhD in theology at Glasgow University. His academic work has been published in multiple collections and journals.
He lives in New York where he is a series contributor to the online Torah study forum 929.org.il.
Activism
Project Lulutho
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter
Benjamin spent 2010 establishing a rural upliftment and soil regeneration project in South Africa's Eastern Cape.
Following the completion of the project's first phase, the site began hosting people leaving substance treatment facilities and teaching them how to grow their own gardens.
The 2020 documentary Kiss the Ground shows how the principles Lulutho followed can save our planet. You can find it on Netflix or organize viewings via its website.
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter
Benjamin attended and crafted handmade signs for sixty Black Lives Matter protests in New York and DC in 2020.
If anyone remains unclear about the racist realities of the US criminal justice system, they can please watch Time: The Kalief Browder Story on Netflix.
Benjamin continues to support the Black Women's March and encourages everyone to discover the incredible work they do for black women and children.
Climate emergency
Black Lives Matter
Climate emergency
Climate change is the single greatest threat of our time. It is real, not something you do or don't believe in.
We ignored the science for forty years so need to transition swiftly off of fossil fuels.
Jane Fonda's book What Can I Do? is an excellent resource to find one's way out of fatalism and into activism.
You can also tune in every week as she hosts Greenpeace's Fire Drill Fridays
(2pm ET/11am PST).
Other writing
929.org.il
929.org.il
929.org.il
Benjamin's contributions to the Israeli Torah forum (in English) include pieces on Georges Orwell and Floyd, the prophet Elisha's bad hair day, and Ezekiel 1 read by Jessica Rabbit.
They are short, two-minute reads--highly educational and always entertaining.
Memoir
929.org.il
929.org.il
Benjamin has completed a domestic memoir about his late family and the people who inhabited his childhood home in the early 20th Century.
Inspired by his hometown's greatest legacy, it is called I'm Not Eugene O'Neill.
Novel
929.org.il
Novel
Quarantining in 2020 and 2021 allowed Benjamin to turn some research he began in the Brooklyn Historical Society into a work of historical fiction.
It is about gay love, fierce women, and the value of intellectual freedom.
He finished the first draft in February 2021.