Yacov Yanki Jack | 2015 | 32 minutes | colour | sound | digital video‘

‘Yacov, Yanki Jack’ is a filmic work that takes us inside the practice of rabbinical supervision or ‘Chalav Yisorel’ as we journey with Yacov Abenson, a Jewish Orthodox supervisor from Manchester in England doing ‘spot check’ supervision on Irish dairy farms supplying North Cork Creameries in the Cullen area in County Cork. Constant supervision on the 100 farms supplying the creamery was not feasible during milking, so these spot checks were a substitute for continuous supervision. On this journey we witness a rare glimpse into this ancient Jewish religious practice in a modern day Irish rural dairy farming community, bringing together two very different cultures through a niche economic exchange.

Yacov, Yanki and Jack are the Rabbi’s names in Hebrew, Yiddish and English.