Exhibitions Passover

Boston

Vilna Shul

Julie Weitz

Golem v. Golem

March 26 — April 4
To see more about this exhibition, click here.

Baltimore

Jewish Museum of Maryland

Tal Beery

in the absence of a proper mourning

March 26 —May 18
To see more about this exhibition, click here.

Charlotte

Queens University of Charlotte

Mike Wirth

“Havtacha” The Promise

Opening March 26th
To see more about this exhibition, click here.

Detroit

Museum of Contemporary Art

Olivia Guterson

At Our Table

March 25 — April 4
To see more about this exhibition, click here.

New York City

JCC Harlem

Repair the World NYC

Hillel Smith

What sustains Us

Opening March 26th
To see more about this exhibition, click here.

14th Street Y

ZAZ10TS, LED BILLBOARD

Maya Ciarrochi

THIS PLACE HAS A BODY

Opening March 26th
To see more about this exhibition, click here.

Toronto

Miles Nadal jewish Community Centre

Bareket Kezwer

BOTH&

Opening March 26th
To see more about this exhibition, click here.

Xenophobia

Visual Response

Mirta Kupferminc

CLAMOR IN THE DESERT

JEWISH HISTORY MUSEUM AND HOLOCAUST CENTER in TUCSON (fall 2020)

LABA

"Clamor in the Desert" by Mirta Kupferminc

Adaptation of Mirta Kupferminc's "Clamor in the Desert" on display at the 14th Street Y

As the artist for this piece, Mirta Kupferminc, writes, the movement of people around the world does not stop stirring. Whether emigrants, exiles, expatriates, immigrants, or refugees – all are displaced from their homes and are referenced in this sukkah. The sukkah is an unstable and temporary construction, representing the fragility of human life and at the same time a shelter for anyone who feels forlorn. Kol Kore Bamidbar, are the Hebrew words to say, "That voice that cries out for protection." The work transforms fence materials into a shelter that welcomes everyone. The same material that is used to build limitation and separation are used in this habitable installation to build a celebration, a shelter that receives humanity as a whole. Humanity is represented on the walls of the sukkah, as they are filled with printed images of eyes through participatory collective action. Visitors will be invited to hang prints on the installation. Mirrors hanging from the structure will reflect the eyes of visitors, as witnesses. In the time of our current plague, although our mouths are covered with protective masks; our voices in our eyes continue to claim justice together. CLAMOR EN EL DESIERTO/Kol Kore Bamidbar La suka es una construccion inestable y provisoria, que representa la fragilidad de la vida humana. Pero es tambien el refugio para todo aquel que se siente desprotegido. Kol Kore Bamidbar, son las palabras hebreas para decir “esa voz que pide proteccion.” Toda suka tiene sus paredes abiertas invitando a todo individuo que desee entrar, y ese es el motivo para celebrar. Es por eso, que en la tradicion judia es obligacion dejar afuera de la suka toda afliccion. Los colores utilizados en esta obra representan los coleres de los atributos de sukkot, sumado el color del desierto de Arizona. El mismo material que sirve para construir cercos que limitan y separan, fueron utilizados en esta obra para construir un refugio de celebracion que albergue a la humanidad. En epocas de Covid19, y aunque nuestras bocas esten cubiertas con las mascaras protectoras; nuestras voces en nuestras miradas siguen clamando por justicia para la humanidad toda.

Mirta Kupferminc

Mirta Kupferminc is a multidisciplinary Argentine artist, curator, lecturer, mentor, and teacher of other artists who lives and works in Buenos Aires.

Exhibiting since 1977, she has had more than 100 solo and group shows in Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Uruguay, China Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong , Germany, Israel, Poland, France, Hungary, England, United States. Her works can be found in international collections and museums. She has received local and international printmaking awards, including: Great Honor Prize (2012) in Argentina, First Prize Sivori Museum, Argentina (2018), Silver Medal Taiwan Biennale (2006), Honor Mention Taipei Biennale (1999), Third Prize at 7th Koichi Biennale (2008). She was curator of the Argentinean presentation at the Contemporary Jewish Art Jerusalem Biennale 2019.

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View virtual tour

Written Response

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (translated by Sondra Silverston

Please find the written response "A Writer's Report on the Beersheba Bus Station Shooting" here.

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is the author of Waking Lions, winner of the 2017 JQ-Wingate Prize, and a New York Times notable book of 2018. Her debut novel, One Night, Markovitch, received Israel’s prestigious Sapir Prize, and was awarded the Wizo prize in both Italy and France. Her latest novel, The Liar, was a Wingate prize finalist, a People editor’s pick, and one of Elle Magazine’s best books of 2019. Ayelet works as a clinical psychologist at Geha mental health hospital, Israel.

Racism

Visual Response

ADAM W. MCKINNEY

Shelter in place

Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (Fall 2020)

Asylum Arts

From "Shelter in Place" by Adam W. McKinney

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A Black Jewish response to histories of oppression, "Shelter in Place" is an inquiry into social isolation and the physical and emotional effects of anti-Black racial violence across time and space. "Shelter in Place" is made up of several elements, including: contemporary tintypes of McKinney dressed as 1921 Fort Worth, Texas, lynching victim Mr. Fred Rouse at sites associated with the lynching; a mélange of hanging tree branches to reference the deconstruction of a sukkah; and two projected dance films–one of McKinney performing the story of Mr. Rouse in sites of trauma, and the other a hologram about the intersections of racism and antisemitism in the time of Covid-19.

Adam W. McKinney

Adam W. McKinney is a Gay, Black, Native, Jewish artist whose work investigates the impact of history as the persistent pursuit of social justice activism. A former member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Béjart Ballet Lausanne, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Milwaukee Ballet Company, he was named one of the most influential African-Americans in Milwaukee, Wis., by St. Vincent DePaul. More at www.dnaworks.org.

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Written Response

Marra B. Gad

Please find the written piece "Your Life Too" here.

Marra B. Gad is an award-winning author, speaker and independent writer/producer. As president of Egad! Productions, she oversees the development and production of scripted television series and films. A grateful child of adoption, Marra speaks internationally about her own transracial adoption in 1970, and her experiences being Black/White biracial and Jewish through the lens of her debut memoir, THE COLOR OF LOVE: A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl, winner of the 2020 Midwest Book Award for Autobiography/Memoir.

Marra proudly holds a BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MA in Jewish History from Baltimore Hebrew Institute at Towson University.

Having written her first television pilot in 2020, Marra is currently working on her next book from her home in Los Angeles.

Ageism

Visual Response

Tiffany Woolf

THE USPHIZIN OF THE SILVER SCREEN: HONORING THE VISIONS & VOICES OF THE PAST

Holocaust Museum LA (Fall 2020)

Reboot

Exterior of Tiffany Woolf's "Ushpizin of the Silver Screen"

Detail from "Ushpizin of the Silver Screen" by Tiffany Woolf

Detail from Tiffany Woolf's "Ushpizin of the Silver Screen"

A poster promoting Tiffany Woolf's "Ushpizin of the Silver Screen."

This year, we are all living apart…forced to quarantine…many alone, sheltering in place, often with no outlet for deep connection and community. For our elders, there is a loss of voice and in these times, a disappearance. This outdoor installation focused on the Sukkot tradition of the ushpizin: symbolic guests invited into the sukkah…ancestors…friends. The tradition manifests by calling them into the temporary space of the sukkah to honor stories of the past. Traditionally, the ushpizin are called in through photos and drawings displayed in the sukkah—remembered together by its nightly visitors.

In keeping with Los Angeles culture, this sukkah was designed as an old-time Hollywood movie house, with the voices and stories of the ushpizin watched and heard from the outside. While the sukkah remained Covid-empty, it was filled by the once voiceless, with their diverse and cherished Jewish stories and remembrances of the past.

Tiffany Woolf

Tiffany Woolf is a filmmaker with 25 years of experience in visual arts, film and entertainment. Her work is centered around moving images as a catalyst for remembrance and legacy. Since 2017, Tiffany’s major artistic focus has been her project Silver Screen Studios, a series of documentary shorts and digital platform to celebrate the wit, wisdom and candor of seniors, both in and out of the public eye. She has traveled the country to capture the stories of older role models along with the legends we love and launched three series: “The Last Act,” “Coming of Age” and “Dispatches from Quarantine.”

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SilverScreen Studios

Written Response

Letty Cottin Pogrebin

I used to think old people were either cute or sad.

The cute ones were Kirk Douglas or Ruth Bader Ginsburg doing push-ups, and gray-haired couples animatedly talking to each other or walking hand in hand in the park. The sad ones were stooped, infirm, inept, crotchety, disheveled, occasionally incoherent, and mostly invisible. I used to laugh when comedians mocked elderly men who still flirt when a pretty girl passes by, and 80-something women who still dress with panache and take pains with their make-up as if they had a prayer of attracting the male gaze. In other words, having absorbed from the world around me its negative stereotypes of “seniors,” and its cultish adoration of youth, I’d succumbed to the plague of ageism.

Since turning 60, then 70, then, incredibly, 80, I’ve cringed at age-related stereotypes and raged not just at the ‘dying of the light’—Dylan Thomas’ immortal phrase for mortality tremors—but at the maddening societal attitudes that dismiss my cohort as over the hill has-beens.

In 2017, America’s seniors totaled more than 46 million, a number expected to nearly double over the next 30 years. Yet children and young people are still being indoctrinated with the same disparaging images and demeaning mindsets about age and aging that I grew up with.

Jewish tradition, though more balanced, sends mixed messages. On the one hand, our liturgy and sacred texts constantly refer to elders as repositories of wisdom, compassion, experience, understanding, judgement, and insight. The Torah reminds us that “Moses was 80 and Aaron was 83 when they made their demand on Pharaoh,” an act of immense courage and chutzpah. The Talmud calls 80 ‘the age of strength.” Proverbs describes “a hoary head,” (gray hair) as “a crown of glory,” implying that longevity is the reward for a life of righteousness.

On the other hand, we also encounter descriptions in granular detail of the depredations and burdens of age—dimmed vision, physical weakness, mental confusion—and perplexing paradoxes. Leviticus commands, “You must rise up before the aged and honor the face of the older person; you must fear your God,” aligning the will of the deity with the dignity of the aged and suggesting that Adonai stands ready to police ageism. Yet during the High Holy Days, Shema Koleinu has us reciting the Psalmist’s plea, “Do not cast us off in old age; when our strength fails, do not forsake us.” Surely, I’m not the only one who hears those words as an indirect expression of, dare I say it, the divinity’s occasional slide into ageism. Why else would God require an explicit request to not abandon those who are weaker than they once were.

Just as our inherited tradition tries to reconcile these contradictions, so should we tackle the scourge of age-bias and confront the idolatrous worship of youth. We must assume the best (imputing to older people personal value, continuing capacities and aspirations), while accommodating to the worst (the inevitable depletions of age) by providing care and kindness until the end of life. Anything less will be a plague on humanity and a shanda for our people.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin is a writer, activist, and national lecturer with a special interest in women's issues, Black-Jewish relations, and dialogue between Jews and Palestinians. A founding editor of Ms. magazine and a columnist for 30 years for Moment magazine, Letty's work has also been published in The New York Times, The Nation, Time, Huffington Post, The Forward, and many other publications. A co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, Pogrebin has served on the boards of the Brandeis Women's and Gender Studies Program, the Harvard Divinity School Women in Religion Program, and Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication. Winner of an Emmy Award for her work as Editorial Consultant on Marlo Thomas' "Free to Be, You and Me," Pogrebin has also been honored for her social justice activism by dozens of organizations and institutions. A graduate of Brandeis University, she and her husband, Bert Pogrebin, a labor and employment lawyer, have three children and six grandchildren.

BINARY THINKING

Visual Response

Bareket Kezwer

BOTH&

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues

Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre (Toronto)

On view now.

Bareket Kezwer’s Both& inspires us to consider the plague of binary thinking. Passover is a holiday celebrating the duality of freedom and slavery, a time when we intentionally hold the paradox of life—the inseparability and interdependence of seemingly contradictory phenomena. Holding this paradox is not only part of fulfilling the mitzvah of retelling the story of our exodus from Egypt into the land of Israel, but also a lesson that can support us embracing the wholeness of life—especially as we navigate the uncertainty of this global pandemic. Slavery and freedom. Connection and alienation. Division and solidarity. Struggle and growth. Beauty and ugliness. Pleasure and pain. Simcha and sorrow. Recognizing that we cannot have one without the other, Bareket’s mural invites viewers to explore how we can create space and acceptance by shifting our perspective.

Bareket Kezwer

Bareket Kezwer is a Toronto-based muralist, community art facilitator, curator, producer, and eternal optimist. Her work is motivated by a desire to spread joy, cultivate gratitude, and foster new social interactions. Using aerosol and acrylic paint as well as digital design, she works with bright colors and bold patterns to captivate people’s attention and fill them with delight. She is passionate about creating art that both aesthetically and psychologically brightens the streets.

Her belief that public art is a powerful tool for building community drives her practice. She is the founder and creative director of Women Paint, an annual street art event that has produced 80 murals celebrating the strength and diversity of women and non-binary artists and community members.

Over the last seven years, she has created custom large-scale artworks for clients including The New Yorker, Tourism Canada, the City of Toronto, the City of Mississauga, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Toronto, Facebook, and Airbnb.

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues is produced by Asylum Arts and Hillel Smith, in collaboration with LABA, and made possible with the generous support of CANVAS. Murals have been created in New York City, Charlotte and Toronto. In Toronto, Bareket Kezwer’s mural at the Miles Nadal JCC engage with the plague of binary thinking, and is in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Mike Wirth’s mural in Charlotte at the Queens University of Charlotte in partnership with the Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University of Charlotte, makes visible the plague of housing insecurity. Hillel Smith’s paired murals in New York City, at JCC Harlem and Repair the World NYC, engage with food insecurity. Maya Ciarrocchi’s mural at the 14th St Y in New York and the video installtions at ZAZ10TS in explores the plague of grief and loss.

Written Response

Rabbi Abby Stein

Please find the written response "Makah/Plague of the Binary" here.

Rabbi Abby Stein is a Jewish educator, author, speaker, and activist. She was born and raised in a Hasidic family of rabbinic descent, and is a direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. Abby attended Yeshiva, completing a rabbinical degree in 2011. In 2012, she left the Hasidic world to explore a self-determined life. In 2015 Abby came out as a woman of trans experience. Since coming out, she has been working to raise support and awareness for trans rights and those leaving Ultra-Orthodoxy.

Her story has been covered in the New York Times, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Jewish Daily Forward, Daily Mail, NBC, Vogue, InStyle, and more, as well as live appearances on CNN, Fox News, HuffPost Live, ShowTime, NowThis, PopSugar and internationally. In 2016, Abby was named by The Jewish Week as one of the “36 Under 36".

Grief and Loss

Visual Response

Maya Ciarrocchi

This Place Has a Body

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues

14th Street Y (New York City)

ZAZ10TS (New York City)

March 26-April 6

Maya Ciarrocchi, This Place Has a Body. ZAZ10ts

Maya Ciarrocchi, This Place Has a Body, mural sketch

New York City is a city in constant flux and a place of ghosts. We live in apartments that housed countless generations of individuals and families, new buildings rise on top of the foundations of what came before, and long-familiar businesses open and close overnight. Now during the Covid-19 pandemic, this flux is more rapid and the scale of loss so immense we barely have time to comprehend its breadth. Combining decorative details that adorned the walls and ceilings of now-vanished wooden synagogues with her dancing body and the Unicorn, an ancient symbol of death and rebirth, Maya’s mural project and video installation "This Place Has a Body," creates new fantastical spaces out of the residue of loss.

ZAZ10TS TIMES SQUARE BILLBOARD

A video installation of "This Place Has a Body" will be showcased on the ZAZ Corner Billboard (South East Corner of 41st Street and 7th Avenues) and will concurrently be projected on the ZAZ10Ts Gallery Wall in the lobby of 10 Times Square.

ZAZ10TS is an ongoing cultural initiative that integrates art into the office building at 10 Times Square. Conceived by Tzili Charney, the ZAZ10TS gallery space employs the building’s façade, LED billboard, lobby interior, and immediate environment to bring art and culture to the building’s community, visitors, and passersby. ZAZ10TS takes pride in scouting and showcasing the gamut of talent, ranging from established artists to young and emerging talent, as well as special needs artists, as part of its programming. In addition, ZAZ10TS partners with other organizations nationally and internationally to support art. For more info visit:

www.zaz10ts.com

Maya Ciarrocchi

Maya Ciarrocchi is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist working across media in drawing, printmaking, performance, video, installation, and social practice. Through personal narrative, storytelling, and embodied mapmaking her projects excavate disappeared histories as in "Site: Yizkor," where architectural renderings of destroyed buildings, maps of vanished places, historical Yizkor (Jewish memorial) books, and audience-contributed writings become sources for exploring the physical and emotional documentation of loss.

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues is produced by Asylum Arts and Hillel Smith, in collaboration with LABA, and made possible with the generous support of CANVAS. Murals have been created in New York City, Charlotte and Toronto. In Toronto, Bareket Kezwer’s mural at the Miles Nadal JCC engage with the plague of binary thinking, and is in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Mike Wirth’s mural in Charlotte at the Queens University of Charlotte in partnership with the Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University of Charlotte, makes visible the plague of housing insecurity. Hillel Smith’s paired murals in New York City, at JCC Harlem and Repair the World NYC, engage with food insecurity. Maya Ciarrocchi’s mural at the 14th St Y in New York and the video installtions at ZAZ10TS in explores the plague of grief and loss.

Written Response

Darin Strauss

Please find the written response "Beyond the Plague of Grief and Loss" here.

Darin Strauss's most recent book, "The Queen of Tuesday," came out in August 2020 and was a Washington Post best book of the year, among others. He's also the author of the bestselling novels "Chang & Eng," "The Real McCoy," "More Than It Hurts You," the NBCC-winning memoir "Half a Life," and a bestselling comic-book series, "Olivia Twist." These have been New York Times Notable Books; and Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and NPR Best Books of the Year, among others.

Food insecurity

Visual Response

Hillel Smith

What Sustains Us

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues

Repair the World/JCC Harlem (New York City)

On view now.

Hillel Smith, What Sustains Us-Repair the World Brooklyn

Hillel Smith, What Sustains Us_JCC Harlem

Hillel Smith, What Sustains Us. JCC Harlem. Photo by Shulamit Seidler-Feller

Current circumstances have exacerbated the existing crisis of food insecurity in this country. Meanwhile, an unexpected consequence of the pandemic has been reconnecting us to how and what we eat as we spend more time at home. In Hillel Smith’s paired murals, What Sustains Us, he was inspired by the two quotes bracketing the beginning and end of Birkat Hamazon (the traditional prayer said after eating): "Hazan et hakol" (thanking God for sustaining everything and everyone) and "Na'ar Hayiti v'gam zakanti v'lo raiti tzadik ne'ezav" (I have been old and I have been young yet I have never watched a righteous person forsaken...) He has designed a language of faces and body parts built out of utensils and food items—spoons, forks, knives, fruits, and veggies—that offer fun and whimsical encouragement to think about all that connects our bodies to what we eat.

Hillel Smith

Hillel Smith is an artist and designer focused on re-imagining the potential of Judaica by utilizing contemporary media to create new manifestations of traditional forms. He has painted dynamic Jewish murals in Southern California, Atlanta, Virginia, Minnesota, Jerusalem, and at the Fendi headquarters in Rome. He revitalizes ancient rituals with online projects, including the Best Omer Ever: GIF the Omer counter and Parsha Posters, encouraging creative reconsideration of religious practice. Seeing Hebrew as the visual glue that binds Jews together across time and space, he also teaches Jewish typographic history, using print as a lens for Jewish life and culture. Making fun and engaging content is similarly the crux of his work as a designer for clients including HIAS, PJ Library, and Patton Oswalt.

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues is produced by Asylum Arts and Hillel Smith, in collaboration with LABA, and made possible with the generous support of CANVAS. Murals have been created in New York City, Charlotte and Toronto. In Toronto, Bareket Kezwer’s mural at the Miles Nadal JCC engage with the plague of binary thinking, and is in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Mike Wirth’s mural in Charlotte at the Queens University of Charlotte in partnership with the Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University of Charlotte, makes visible the plague of housing insecurity. Hillel Smith’s paired murals in New York City, at JCC Harlem and Repair the World NYC, engage with food insecurity. Maya Ciarrocchi’s mural at the 14th St Y in New York and the video installtions at ZAZ10TS in explores the plague of grief and loss.

Written Response

Michael W. Twitty

Please find the written response "When I was Ruth" here.

Michael W. Twitty is a culinary historian and food writer from the Washington D.C. area. He blogs at Afroculinaria.com. He’s appeared on "Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern," "Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates," and most recently "Taste the Nation" with "Top Chef"'s Padma Lakshmi. HarperCollins in 2017 released Twitty’s "The Cooking Gene," which traces his ancestry through food from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom, and which was a finalist for The Kirkus Prize and The Art of Eating Prize and a third-place winner of Barnes&Noble's Discover New Writer's Awards in Nonfiction. "The Cooking Gene" won the 2018 James Beard Award for best writing as well as book of the year, making Twitty the first Black author so awarded. His piece on visiting Ghana in Bon Appetit was included in "Best Food Writing in 2019" and was nominated for a 2019 James Beard Award. His next book, "Rice" with UNC Press is currently fresh off the presses. "Koshersoul," his follow-up to "The Cooking Gene," will be out in 2022 through HarperCollins. Twitty has a hit spice line based on "The Cooking Gene" and has a special guest appearance on Michelle Obama's "Waffles and Mochi" show on Netflix.

Single-Use Plastic

Visual Response

Olivia Guterson

At Our Table

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART DETROIT

Reboot

March 25-April 4

At Our Table Process Image, Olivia Guterson. Photo by Robert-David Jones.

Detail from Olivia Guterson's "At Our Table"

OliviaGuterson_Process_Image by Sal Rodriguez

"At Our Table" is a reimagining of a Passover table constructed from locally sourced, discarded single-use plastics, illuminating the concept of convenience, throwaway culture, and environmental responsibility during a holiday centered on the joy and the sacrifices necessary in finding our own personal liberation.

Every Passover, Jews around the world give up leavened bread – hametz. It’s a sacrifice they make willingly to recall their ancestors’ journey from slavery to freedom. But this year, Reboot and Jonathan Bines, a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live! have created Plastover, asking Jews to make another kind of sacrifice – choosing to mindfully free ourselves from the plague of plastic waste by committing to eliminate the use of single-use plastic for the eight days of Passover. The goal is to add something more contemporary and directly meaningful into the holiday and have an immediate impact on the world. At Our Table, is a key piece of Plastover. Learn more about Plastover here.

Olivia Guterson

Olivia Guterson is an interdisciplinary artist, born in Gallup, New Mexico, based in Detroit. She is deeply influenced by the textures, landscapes, and patterns of her upbringing in the Southwest, as well as her Jewish and African heritage. She works predominantly in black and white for its stability, intensity, and honesty while incorporating ancestral patterns and narratives. Olivia studied at the Evergreen State College, Washington State. In 2020, she curated her first exhibition, "The Space Between" at the Ann Arbor Art Center. She presently is a resident at Sibyls Shrine and AS220’s Practice//Practice. Private and public collections where her works can be found include: Detroit Art Collection, Library Street Collective, Shinola Hotel, and ROI in Jerusalem. Her work has been shown at the Arab American National Museum, Art Week Miami, JADA Art Fair, Norwest Gallery, Detroit Artist Market, Ann Arbor Art Center, and more.

Written Response

Response to "At Our Table"

Sarah Blake

Sarah Blake will respond through a piece of creative nonfiction, exploring plastics, the environment, family, the passing of time, Jewish identity, and specifically the Passover holiday.

For the full written response, please see "Over Time".

Sarah Blake's debut novel "Naamah" is a retelling of Noah’s Ark from the perspective of Noah’s wife (Riverhead Books). Joan Silber called it “[A] wild and superbly intelligent reimagining” in The New York Times. A starred Kirkus Review dubbed it “A poetic debut of biblical proportions,” and it was praised by O, The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, and Publishers Weekly, among others. It won the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction and the Bisexual Book Award for Fiction. Blake is also the author of two collections of poetry: "Let’s Not Live on Earth," featuring the epic poem “The Starship”; and "Mr. West," an unauthorized lyric biography of Kanye West (Wesleyan University Press). An illustrated workbook of prompts and activities accompanies her chapbook "Named After Death" (Banango Editions). Her poems and short stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Catapult, The Kenyon Review, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and holds her MFA from The Pennsylvania State University and MA from The University of Texas at Austin. She currently lives in the United Kingdom under the Global Talent route, but she has lived most of her life in the Philadelphia area. Her second novel "Clean Air" is coming out with Algonquin Books on February 8, 2022.

housing insecurity

Visual Response

Mike Wirth

“Havtacha” The Promise

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues

The Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University of Charlotte

March 25-May 12

Since the pandemic hit, many shelters in Charlotte, N.C., have had to close. This has forced hundreds of individuals and families to the streets and into a makeshift tent city that runs adjacent to a central highway. Many of these people have endured months of freezing temperatures and winter weather. A concerted effort is underway to assist these people, but still many in the community are unaware or choose to ignore the growing problem, and Mike's mural is intended to raise awareness of this crisis. The piece is built around the concept of "a promise," which is at the heart of virtually every system of faith. Spiritual, financial, societal, and interpersonal. The project highlights the struggle that these individuals face on a daily basis brought on the pandemic and other systematic plagues that befall the Queen City.

Dwelling in a Time of Plagues Project Passover 2021 Charlotte Interfaith Project “Havtachah - The Promise” Mural focused on Tent City will have a short tour throughout the Spring at the following dates and locations: Site #1 – Camp North End (400 Camp Road) - March 28 to April 4 Site #2 – Queens University/Myers Park Baptist Church – April 4 to April 11 Site #3 – Muslim Community Center of Charlotte – April 11 to April 18 Site #4 – Temple Beth El/Shalom Park – April 18 to April 25 Site #5 – MeckMIN/Park Road Baptist Church – April 25 – May 12 Projection Mapping: During the course of the tour, Wirth will be projection mapping a series of short looping graphical animations onto his mural wall. Each animation will introduce the harsh conditions such as snow, freezing rain, mud, litter, vermin, and the overall lack of empathy, that have befallen our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness in Charlotte's tent city. The mural wall will light up at night and extend the experience of the image with motion.

Mike Wirth

Mike Wirth is a street artist, graphic designer, and an associate professor of art based in Charlotte, N.C. His work reflects his blended Jewish upbringing and his experience of adulthood in the American South through pop art-inspired Jewish iconography and typography. Over the past 20 years, Mike’s mural projects, information graphics, illustrations, and museum exhibits have had a notable presence in U.S. cities like Charlotte, Miami, and New York City, and internationally in Croatia, Poland, and Germany. Currently, Mike is a commissioned mural artist, illustrator, and tenured associate professor of graphic design at Queens University of Charlotte. He holds an MFA from Parsons School of Design in Design and Technology and a BFA from Long Island University in Digital Art and Design.

Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 - Contemporary Plagues is produced by Asylum Arts and Hillel Smith, in collaboration with LABA, and made possible with the generous support of CANVAS. Murals have been created in New York City, Charlotte and Toronto. In Toronto, Bareket Kezwer’s mural at the Miles Nadal JCC engage with the plague of binary thinking, and is in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Mike Wirth’s mural in Charlotte at the Queens University of Charlotte in partnership with the Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University of Charlotte, makes visible the plague of housing insecurity. Hillel Smith’s paired murals in New York City, at JCC Harlem and Repair the World NYC, engage with food insecurity. Maya Ciarrocchi’s mural at the 14th St Y in New York and the video installtions at ZAZ10TS in explores the plague of grief and loss.

Written Response

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Please fine the written response "Plague of Housing Insecurity" here.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yankowitzis the President & Dean of the Valley Beit Midrash (a national Jewish pluralistic adult learning & leadership center), the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek (a Jewish social justice organization), the Founder and CEO of Shamayim (a Jewish animal advocacy movement), the Founder and President of YATOM, (the Jewish foster and adoption network), and the author of 21 books on Jewish ethics. Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America and the Forward named him one of the 50 most influential Jews.

Darkness

Visual Response

Julie Weitz

Golem v. Golem

Vilna Shul (Boston)

Asylum Arts

March 26-April 5

Golem v. Golem (Dir. D.S. Chun and Co-Dir. Julie Weitz), 2021. Photo Credit: Alex the Brown. Cinematographer: Mustafa Rony Zeno. Sound/AD: Cameron Gibson. PA: Daniel Jorgensen. Art Director/Costume: Jill Spector. Body Double: Genevieve Lerner.

Julie Weitz, "Here I am" (preview image for "Golem v. Golem"), 2021

GOLEM: A Call to Action (Angeles National Forest / Tongva), 2019 (photo credit Aaron Farley)

Tashlich, 2019 (photo credit Aaron Farley)

In 2017, in response to the Charlotteville protests, artist Julie Weitz created her performative project "My Golem," which centers on her embodiment of the mythical creature drawn from Jewish folklore. A futuristic highly-stylized figure covered with white mud, she was brought to life to respond to contemporary challenges including climate catastrophe, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia.

Over the past four years, "My Golem" has evolved from Instagram videos to performances at protests to creative collaborations- taking on a life of her own. "Golem v. Golem" is a new eight-part episodic video series inspired by the Passover story’s struggle between tyranny and freedom. Through the series, Weitz re-examines her multi-year project exploring "My Golem"’s creation story, her activism, and how the character has been received and (mis)-interpreted by different audiences in various contexts. Weitz’s journey through her previous work as both creator and creation requires retelling and reframing her past, and ultimately questioning her connection to God. The videos weave the themes of Passover throughout the dialogue and question the possibility of both psychological and spiritual liberation within all of us.

In addition to the installation at the Vilna Shul, "Golem v. Golem" is a digital project designed for Instagram, and will include an unfolding narrative with one episode available each day of the holiday, as well as supporting posts, stories, and a companion literary collaboration, "What We Talk About When We Talk to the Golem," by Moriel Rothman-Zecher. Created, co-directed and co-edited by Julie Weitz, directed and co-edited by D.S. Chun of Rug and Vase alongside Director of Photography Mustafa Zeno, Sound Recordist Cameron Gibson, Costume Designer Jill Spector and musician Nyxe.

Julie Weitz

Julie Weitz is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work spans several media including video, film, performance, and installation. Her practice is grounded in Jewish folklore, mysticism, humor, and ritual. Weitz is currently a 2020-21 Cultural Trailblazer of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and a Helix Fellow at Yiddishkayt. Her work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, BOMB, LA Confidential, Photograph Magazine, Hyperallergic, and KCRW. Weitz has received grants from the California Center for Cultural Innovation, Banff Centre for Arts, Asylum Arts, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. She is a contributing writer at Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (Carla) and an activist with Never Again Action, a progressive, Jewish-led organization that takes direct actions to defend immigrant justice. Weitz founded the Instagram account @Jews4BlackLives in May 2020, which serves as an educational hub for the Jewish activist community in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

Golem v. Golem by Julie Weitz is produced by Asylum Arts. The project is presented at Boston’s Vilna Shul in partnership with JArts Boston. A companion literary collaboration, "What We Talk About When We Talk to the Golem," by Moriel Rothman-Zecher, is produced by Jewish Book Council. Additional partners include the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, the Jewish Museum of Florida/FIU and the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee.

Written Response

What We Talk About When We Talk to the Golem

Moriel Rothman-Zecher

Julie Weitz’s Golem is a fictional character with a mythical pedigree; in responding to and conversing with this iteration of the Golem, Moriel Rothman-Zecher will create three characters of his own, each speaking from, if not for, a different part of American Jewishness in 2021. The central response from each will be in writing, including an earnest/nervous transcript of an interview with the Golem, a poetic essay on the Golem, and a conspiracy theory-laden report about the Golem. Additionally, each character will have a possible video component. These characters will, to varying degrees, be golem-esque themselves, in that they are each exaggerated in their attributes, and all three have a bit of childlikeness to them. Together with the Golem, they will give voice to a variation on the Four Children.

For the full written responses, please see "Interview with the Golem" and "What We Talk About When We Talk To The Golem", "Episode 46: Red Pilling "The Golem", and "The Golem Sonnets".

Moriel Rothman-Zecher is a Jerusalem-born novelist and poet. His first novel, "Sadness Is a White Bird," received the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" Honor, won the Ohioana Book Award, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. His work has been published in The Common Magazine, Haaretz, the Jewish Book Council's Paper Brigade, the New York Times, the Paris Review's Daily, Runner's World, the Tel Aviv Review of Books, ZYZZYVA Magazine, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of two MacDowell Fellowships for Literature, and Yiddishkayt's Wallis Annenberg Helix Fellowship for Yiddish Cultural Studies. Moriel's second novel is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2022. He lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with his family.

Covid

Visual Response

Tal Beery

in the absence of a proper mourning

Jewish Museum of Maryland (Baltimore)

LABA

March 26-May 18

Tal Beery, interior home image captured during Zoom conversation with JM.

It has been a terrible year for goodbyes: final FaceTime calls with loved ones in the hospital; no hugs at the graveside funeral; memorial services over Zoom. The mourning rituals we rely on for comfort and support as we grieve are not possible right now. The loss and isolation so many of us are feeling is immense.

in the absence of a proper mourning is an outdoor installation and online space to gather testimonials from Maryland residents who have had to say goodbye or memorialize their loved ones under conditions of social distancing. Audio excerpts from interviews play on loop from speakers hidden at the base of two large 15-foot decorative arches on the facade of the Jewish Museum of Maryland in the historic Jonestown in Baltimore City. The arches themselves will frame large prints of Zoom background images gathered from the recordings. Thus, the arches, and the museum’s facade overall, will offer pixelated portals into the homes of grieving neighbors.

in the absence of a proper mourning asks us to confront numerous difficult questions related to our connections to one another and transforms the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s public-facing facade into a site for collective mourning and communal care..

"in the absence of mourning" featured on "On the Record"

by WYPR Baltimore

https://omny.fm/shows/on-the-record-1/in-the-absence-of-mourning

Tal Beery

Tal Beery is an artist, educator, and arts administrator. His work considers the links between aesthetics, institutional design, and political imaginations. A serial institution-maker, Beery is co-founder of Eco Practicum, an artist-run school for ecological justice; founding faculty at School of Apocalypse, examining the connections between creative practice and notions of survival; and founding member of Educational Ecologies Collective, a consulting firm generating tools for institutions of higher education to promote climate justice. He is also a core member of Occupy Museums, an artist collective whose projects have exposed corrupt links between high art and high finance. His written work and interviews have appeared in numerous publications, and his personal and collaborative works have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States and Europe, including the 2012 Berlin Biennale, Brooklyn Museum, and the 2017 Whitney Biennial. His current curatorial project, "Owning Earth," considers the relationship between art and epochal change.

Find Out More

Complete audio from in the absence of proper mourning

Written Response

The Importance of witnesses in Times of grief

Rebecca Soffer

This project is a collaboration between artist Tal Beery and Modern Loss' Rebecca Soffer as they document Tal's creative process through a rolling WhatsApp conversation with Rebecca, in which she provides ideas, guidance, and good old-fashioned moral support throughout the production of "In the Absence of a Proper Mourning."

The final written product is a piece that provides context to and reflection on the conversation, followed by the visuals from the WhatsApp discussion, shedding light both on the creative process and the specific sensitives and nuances of collecting and translating personal testimonials around the subject of loss, grief, and mourning.

For the full written response please see "The Importance of Witnesses in Times of Grief".

Rebecca Soffer is co-founder of Modern Loss, which offers creative, meaningful, and encouraging content and community addressing the long arc of grief. She is also co-author of the book "Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome" (Harper Wave, 2018), which The Strategist named a best book on loss for a younger generation, and the author of the forthcoming "The Modern Loss Handbook" (Running Press, 2021), an interactive guide through loss and resilience. She has been featured on "CBS Sunday Morning," led retreats at Kripalu, and spoken nationally on loss and resilience at Chicago Ideas Week, on HBO, and on Amazon. Her writing has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Marie Claire, and NBC. Rebecca is a former producer for "The Colbert Report" and a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumna.

Special Events

Dwelling in the Time of Plagues Opening

JLIVE WITH

GOLEM V. GOLEM ARTIST JULIE WEITZ

Contemporary Plagues - Jewish Street Art Festival Passover 2021 Event

VIRTUAL OPENING: IN THE ABSENCE OF A PROPER MOURNING

Dwelling in a Time of Plagues

A Jewish creative response to real-world plagues of our time

Passover 2021

Plagues & Liberation

baltimore

Artist: Tal Beery Author: Rebecca Soffer

Boston

Artist: Julie Weitz Author: Moriel Rothman-Zecher

Charlotte

Artist: MIKE WIRTHAuthor: Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Detroit

Artist: Olivia GutersonAuthor: Sarah Blake

New York City (Manhattan & Brooklyn)

Artist: Hillel Smith Author: Michael Twitty

New York City (manhattan)

Artist: Maya CiarrochiAuthor:Darin Strauss

Toronto

Artist: Bareket Kezwer Author: Rabbi Abby Stein

Los Angeles

Artist: TIFFANY WOOLFAuthor: Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Portland, Oregon

Artist: ADAM W. MCKINNEY Author: Marra B. Gad

TUCSON

Artist: MIRTA KUPFERMINC Author: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (translated by Sondra Silverston)

Portland, Oregon

Artist: ADAM W. MCKINNEY Author: Marra B. Gad

TUCSON

Artist: MIRTA KUPFERMINC Author: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (translated by Sondra Silverston)

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Boston

Vilna Shul

Julie Weitz

Golem v. Golem

Baltimore

Jewish Museum of Maryland

Tal Beery

in the absence of a proper mourning

Charlotte

Queens University of Charlotte

Mike Wirth

“Havtacha” The Promise

Detroit

Museum of Contemporary Art

Olivia Guterson

At Our Table

New York City

JCC Harlem

Repair the World NYC

Hillel Smith

What sustains Us

14th Street Y

ZAZ10TS, LED BILLBOARD

Maya Ciarrochi

THIS PLACE HAS A BODY

Toronto

Miles Nadal jewish Community Centre

Bareket Kezwer

BOTH&

Xenophobia

Visual Response

Mirta Kupferminc

CLAMOR IN THE DESERT

JEWISH HISTORY MUSEUM AND HOLOCAUST CENTER in TUCSON (fall 2020)

LABA

Dwelling
in a Time of Plagues

Artist: Tal Beery
Author: Rebecca Soffer

Artist: Julie Weitz
Author: Moriel Rothman-Zecher

Artist: MIKE WIRTH
Author: Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Artist: Olivia Guterson
Author: Sarah Blake

New York City
(Manhattan & Brooklyn)

Artist: Hillel Smith
Author: Michael Twitty

Artist: Maya Ciarrochi
Author:Darin Strauss

Artist: Bareket Kezwer
Author: Rabbi Abby Stein

Artist: TIFFANY WOOLF
Author: Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Artist: ADAM W. MCKINNEY
Author: Marra B. Gad

Artist: MIRTA KUPFERMINC
Author: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (translated by Sondra Silverston)

Artist: ADAM W. MCKINNEY
Author: Marra B. Gad

Artist: MIRTA KUPFERMINC
Author: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (translated by Sondra Silverston)