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 dominated Judaism has imposed upon Jewish women. The curse cast upon menstrual blood is seen as a primitive and punitive denigration of the female body.

A farbrengen is a gathering of Hassidism in the presence of their holy Rebbe tolearn Torah and hear his words of wisdom. This exhibition is such a gathering.The hitherto unseen photographs by the photographer Jerry Dantzic present thecollective fabric and texture of the Lubavitch community. The torah life of ahasid is seen in a joyous wedding dance, tender moments at the b'deckening andunder the chuppah, a l'chaim to the Rebbe and rapt attention at leining onPurim morning.

The Choice of Photography

What makes a great photograph? Is it something that merely warms the heart or unlocks the memory? Or might it be something more? Great photographs rise above our individual loves and ethnic interests and exhibit at least four essential elements; compelling composition, clarity of image, engaging subject and technical excellence. Without these components you end up with a "nice" picture that remains a snapshot relegated to a shoebox of memories. The image, Succoth, Man with a Prayer Shawl, Bedford Avenue 1965 by Irving I. Herzberg is intriguing. Much more is here than mere familiarity, in fact this grand photograph answers each categorical imperative of good photography in the affirmative.

"I think there are two kinds of photography - Jewish photography and goyish photography. If you look at modern photography, you will find, on the one hand the Weegees, the Diane Arbuses, the Robert Franks - funky photographs. And then you have the people who go out in the woods. Ansel Adams, Weston. Its like black and white jazz." William Klein, veteran photographer, quoted in the New Yorker May 21, 2001 by Anthony Lewis, thinks Jewishness is distinguished by a predominately urban consciousness somewhat akin to the 'funky' side of "real jazz."

Pictures from Beyond

“He sustains the living with kindness, resuscitates the dead with abundant mercy, …and maintains His faith to those asleep in the dust.” We have this faith in our God. And, as we can, we emulate Him. We remember and maintain faith with those asleep in the dust. We carry on their names in the naming of our children, pass on their midos with tales of wonderful grandparents and we maintain faith with them by saying kaddish for at least two generations. And we, of course, set up a marker were they are resting. Sometimes we have even done more on that very marker. This exhibition, Mount Zion, Immortal Portraits, at the John Stevenson Gallery in Chelsea, is one of those ways.