Faith content is the room and the words, not a generated rabbi
Overlay type or Ideogram for letters. No synthetic clergy.
Synagogue video is the room you have and the words you mean. It is not a generated rabbi. Overlay type on a clip you shot, or generate a poster whose job is letters. Do not sample a face in a tallit and call it the darshan.
Add a text overlay burns a line you wrote — a parasha title, a time, a verse citation — onto a video. Ideogram V4 is the image row for posters and logos with actual text rendering. Those are the two letter jobs. Neither one is a person.
Film the room you already have
The sanctuary, the kiddush table, the ark, the street outside on a Friday — those are the plates. A phone still or a locked-off clip of an empty room is already the set. Image-to-video that still if you need a slow push. Do not ask a model for "a wise rabbi teaching, cinematic lighting." That output is a stranger in a costume. It is not your clergy and it is not the service.
If a person has to appear, it is a person who was there. A talking generate of a synthetic teacher is a different object from a recording of the dvar Torah. Versely will run talking-presenter models. That is not a reason to invent a rav. Empty-room content is not a downgrade: space, light, type.
Type is a layer, not a mouth
Most faith clips fail by putting the teaching in a generated face. Put it in type.
add_video_captions is not transcription. You write the line. One fixed overlay for the whole clip: top, center, or bottom. Font, color, optional background block. list_caption_fonts if you need a named typeface. It does not change over time. Several lines on timestamps is the timed-overlay job, still your copy.
That is how a Shabbat-times graphic, a quote card over bimah B-roll, or a "doors at 6:30" badge ships. Nobody in the frame has to pretend to be clergy.
Ideogram is for letters that have to be letters
When the deliverable is a still poster — a flyer, a kiddush board, a title card with Hebrew or English already in the image — that is text-to-image with a lettering model, not a person model. Ideogram V4 sits in the catalog at 6 credits a call, with text rendering and posters and logos listed as features. The job is crisp type in a frame. It is not "generate a portrait of our rabbi holding a sign."
Prompt title, date, place, palette. If the letters come back wrong, regenerate the poster. Do not "fix" it by sampling a face to stand next to bad type. If the letters only need to live on a video you already have, skip the poster model and overlay.
The line you do not cross
No synthetic rabbi. No synthetic cantor. No generated "member" giving a testimonial. A standard photo release does not cover generation. The production rule is simpler than the legal file: do not generate the person.
Generate the card. Overlay the times. Publish the recording of the human who spoke. A model that can draw a bearded teacher is not a reason to put one in the feed.
FAQ
Can I use a talking-presenter model if I never name a real rabbi?
You can technically run one. You should not use it as synagogue teaching content. An unnamed generated teacher is still synthetic clergy. Put the teaching in type over a real room, or film the person who actually spoke.
Is overlay the same as auto-captions of a sermon?
No. Overlay burns a line you supply. Auto-captions transcribe speech. For a recorded dvar Torah, transcribe the talk. For a title, a time, or a citation nobody says out loud, overlay.
When do I use Ideogram instead of overlay?
When the letters have to live inside a still — a flyer, a title card, a poster. Overlay is for a video you already have. Ideogram is not a substitute for filming a person.
What if I need Hebrew on screen?
Treat it as a lettering job, not a portrait job. Overlay a line you typed, or generate a poster on a text-rendering model and proof the glyphs before you post. Do not hide bad letters next to a generated face.