The CANVAS Compendium: Dispatches from the New Jewish Renaissance
It’s nearly two months since the October 7 attacks, and there are no easy answers to the suffering and bloodshed faced by Israelis and Palestinians. Nor are there easy answers to the surge in hateful violence, speech, and action taking place across the globe. We do know that art is a proven way to fight prejudice, foster dialogue, and create a sense of empowerment and renewal in marginalized communities.
With that in mind, and with all due humility, here are four initiatives across the US and Europe that have successfully used art and culture to fight hate and to bring people together. We’re thankful for their efforts, and we will continue to uplift the power of arts and culture in order to build bridges and foster cross-cultural connection and understanding.
LA vs Hate
From LA vs Hate’s digital content library.
This multifaceted initiative supports the individuals and communities targeted by hate in Los Angeles County. Angelenos can report hate online or by calling 211, allowing for better documentation of incidents and to connect people to local organizations for support. LA vs Hate also opened Dream Centers in eight schools, serving as safe spaces for marginalized students and their families.
Art is a significant part of everything they do. LA vs Hate has been involved with creating murals in Watts, Pico-Robertson, and Chinatown, and they have a library of vibrant, shareable posters and digital art.
“We’ve also had sandcastles, photo exhibits, theatre, music, and poetry,” said Yosi Sergant, a CANVAS Board Member who co-helms TaskForce, a cultural strategy and creative agency that helped launch and grow the program. “Art is not an afterthought. Art is a vital and key ingredient to creating the safety and imagination and creativity that we need to build the society we want. We’d all be better served with more creative people in positions of power.”
Led by the LA County Commission on Human Relations, LA vs Hate works with community partners from LA’s five Board of Supervisors’ Districts. You can see their extensive list of partners and sponsors here.
Barenboim-Said Akademie
Students rehearsing in the Mozart Auditorium of the Barenboim-Said Akademie. Photo © Monika Rittershaus
Music has a way of creating communities—not least, among the musicians. That’s the idea behind the Barenboim-Said Akademie, a Berlin-based conservatory offering music degrees to students from across North Africa and the Middle East, including Israel.
The academy takes its name from the founder, Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim, and the Palestinian activist and educator Edward Said, who died in 2003. The conservatory is a kind of outgrowth of their West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which since 1999 has been bringing together Arab and Israeli musicians.
According to a recent New York Times piece, the Israel-Hamas war has “tested these efforts.” But some remain guardedly optimistic: “We will not bring peace, and we will not solve the world’s problems, as much as we might want to,” said a Palestinian violinist. “But we create a space, and that’s what is missing in the world, not only in the Middle East. Places for people to be accepted by the other.”
The academy receives support from the German Ministry of Culture, the German Foreign Office, a Berlin foundation supported by lottery funds, and Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, a foundation set up by the heirs of a Nazi industrialist.
Le grand festival contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme
The Afro Future Experience. Photo: Anne Volery © Palais de la Porte Dorée.
This spring marked the seventh annual Great Festival against Racism and Antisemitism at the Le Palais de la Porte Dorée, the French immigration museum in Paris. Through music, film, dance, theatre, and literature the festival provides “moments of reflection” for French youth during a time of rising racism and fake news. This year, for example, the Afro-urban collective Art’Press Yourself created the Afro Future Experience, a day of interactive celebrations of African culture centered around fashion, art, food and music.
The festival is organized with the support of a French governmental initiative, La délégation à la lutte contre le racisme, l’antisémitisme et la haine anti-LGBT (DILCRAH).
I Still Believe in Our City
Bus shelter poster by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya. Image: istillbelieve.nyc.
2020 was a dark year in many places, but it was a particularly rough time in New York City. As COVID raged, Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs) faced an unprecedented rise in discrimination—verbal and physical assaults, mostly against women, including an 89-year-old grandmother set on fire in Brooklyn.
At the time, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya was an artist-in-residence with the NYC Commission on Human Rights. Her response to the rise in bigotry was “I Still Believe in Our City,” a series of distinctively colorful posters that appeared in subways stations, bus shelters, and kiosks throughout the city. The images featured powerful taglines—“I am not your scapegoat,” “This is our home too”—turning bigotry into visually and emotionally striking messages of defiance.
“My goal with this art series was to turn these hurts into something beautiful and powerful,” Ms. Phingbodhipakkiya said in an interview. “I really wanted to find a way to say, despite everything we have faced as Asian-Americans and New Yorkers, that I still believe in New York.”
Bonus! Arts and culture offerings from CANVAS grantees
Kultura Collective member Toronto Holocaust Museum on pioneering women archivists and collectors. A fascinating discussion on the women who collected documentary evidence and oral histories of the Holocaust. 11/29 @ 7:30-9:30pm EST at the Toronto Holocaust Museum. More info and tickets here.
Jewish Studio Project’s online program in creative rest. Relax and nourish your creativity with a 75-minute virtual session, grounded in Torah, facilitated by transdisciplinary artist Nicki Green. 11/30 @ 3pm PT | 6 ET on Zoom. Register here.
LABAlive: Taboo. Fellows will present new work featuring music, literature, movement, and more, intertwined with classical Jewish teachings. 11/30 @ 7pm EST at the 14th Street Y in NYC. Tickets here.
Jewish Art Salon: Brighton Beach Bible book launch. Joel Silverstein of JAS in conversation with writer and Compendium contributor Julian Voloj in celebration of Silverstein’s unique autobiographical painted narrative, Brighton Beach Bible. 12/5 @ 5–7pm EST at the Heller Museum in NYC. Register here.
Jewish Book Council’s new book club. JBC invites readers to build their Jewish literary community with an online discussion of Ben Purkert’s debut novel, The Men Can’t Be Saved! 12/7 @ 12:30–1:30pm EST on Zoom. Register here.
New Jewish Culture Fellowship: ancient instruments in concert. NJCF fellow Julia Elsas has spent the last nine years exploring the sonic potential of ceramic sculpture. Her instruments will be brought to life by the band Sonic Mud. 12/12 @ 7pm EST at the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn. Tickets here.
Rising Song Institute’s Joey Weisenberg and the Hadar Ensemble in concert. The annual concert will showcase the Ensemble’s signature fusion of traditional Jewish sounds and eclectic influences. 12/21 @ 7:30pm EST at B’nai Jeshurun in NYC and on Zoom. Tickets here.
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