Yom Kippur (“the Day of Atonement”) is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, and this year it begins at sunset on October 4. For devout Jews, it’s day of prayer, fasting, confessions and asking friends, colleagues and family for forgiveness.
Religion has always been a rich source of material for satirist, TV presenter and author John Safran – and this holy day is no exception. For the past five years or so he’s been posting a “Yom Kippur list” on social media. Rather than a list of people he’s humbly asking forgiveness from, it’s a list of people he feels have wronged him, with demands that they beg for his forgiveness.
“I get a few apologies, but I get way more people who are annoyed they’ve been left off the list,” he says. “People are offended I haven’t roasted them. They’ve definitely asked what they have to do to be shamed by me next year.”
This time he’s pushed the annual tradition to a whole new level and taken out a big digital billboard at the corner of Smith and Gertrude in Fitzroy, designed by David Art Wales. It’s up until October 10.
“The dude who runs that billboard reached out to me and said, ‘If you’ve ever got an idea for an art project that we can put on our billboard, just tell us,’” Safran says. “A few months later I connected the dots.”
“YOU HAVE ALL OFFENDED ME,” the sign reads, with dozens of names below and a QR code linking to the full range of grievances.
Read the article by Nick Connellan in Broadsheet.