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View from the Shoah A well-known Midrash tells of the destruction of Jerusalem and how the Divine Presence removed itself from the holy precincts of the Temple. Stage by stage the Divine Presence retreated from the holy land of Israel as the Land was defiled…
Waters of Contention The Mikveh Project: Photographs by Janice Rubin, Text by Leah Lax For many modern Jewish women there is no more contentious image than the waters of the mikveh. The "ritual bath" is fraught with notions of uncleanliness, impurity and inferiority that traditional male…
Paintings of Shalom of Safed There once lived a pious old man in Safed. His great-grandparents had come from Eastern Europe to Eretz Yisroel sometime in the eighteenth century. He remembered back when the Turks ruled Palestine and then the English came and tried to…
New Paintings “When the Holy One, blessed is He, created the first man, He took him and led him around the trees of the Garden of Eden and said; ”Look at my works! See how beautiful they are–how excellent! For your sake I created them…
Lipchitz's Prayer No time of prayer is more intense than at Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur as we literally pray for our lives, our sustenance and ultimately, our salvation. Our fate hangs in the balance poised between the gates of mercy and the awesome judgment…
A Tragedy by David Pinski One hundred years after David Pinski's (1872-1959) Di Familye Tzvi was written the scathing examination of the Jewish world that the play depicts is neither dated nor out of touch with contemporary Jewish life. Also known as The Last Jew,…
A New Play by Lazarre Seymour Simckes “Are you Alfred Nossig?” the waiter asked the middle aged man at the table. “Yes.” Bang! Bang! Bang! He shoots him dead. “Are you Alfred Nossig? Yes, Bang! Bang! Bang!” “Are you Alfred Nossig...” Three times Alfred Nossig,…
Auschwitz: A Graphic Novel by Pascal Croci Pascal Croci's graphic novel, Auschwitz, begins with a question to a witness from Auschwitz-Birkenau; “How long have you been keeping all this to yourself?” The answer, “Fifty-two years,” is shocking. The novel that follows provides a glimpse into…
Torahluminations by Peter Asher Pitzele Whence an image? The awesome power of visual art unleashes meaning, complex and subtle. No wonder halacha warned us of its destructive power in false worship.  And yet we are driven to explore its permissible borders, wondering how to conceive…
Tzelem: Presence and Likeness in Jewish Art Jewish Art is a grass-roots movement whose time has come. It has evolved precisely because there are those who are moved by their Jewish heritage and wish to share this experience with the art world, the general public…
Megillah Esther by David Wander Ahashverous and Memuchan, illumination and calligraphy by David Wander, Megillah Esther (2007) Such a nice story the Megillah Esther is, don’t you think?  The poor Jews are in exile far from home and get into a bit of trouble with God…
Prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art The L.A Story, a selection of work from ten contemporary Los Angeles Jewish artists currently at the Hebrew Union College – Institute of Religion Museum, poses the question of what exactly does constitute Jewish Art and what is…

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