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Contemporary Jewish Art

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Kupferstein’s Collection Mr. Tibor Kupferstein has a dream.  He would like to create the first Jewish Art Museum in Brooklyn.  It doesn’t seem too farfetched considering that the borough hosts the largest concentration of Jews in the New York metropolitan area.  And yet making his…
Anette Pier and Michael Hafftka at YUM Two deeply idiosyncratic exhibitions at Yeshiva University Museum warrant close inspection if only to show how the diverse richness of biblical and Judaic subject matter can inspire contemporary artists.  The very eclectic nature of both artist’s works speaks…
Knesset Menorah by Benno Elkan Knesset Menorah, 1956, cast bronze by Benno Elkan, Jerusalem, Israel While the heart of Israel’s democracy is to be found in the Knesset in Jerusalem, just across the road is a quiet but persuasive work of art that sums up the…
Memory Paintings Shmuel the artist is what they called him back in the Old Country.  At home and in cheder he was always drawing or modeling something.  Born in 1882 in Wolkovisk, Russia he grew up in poverty, his father a Torah scholar and mother…
Ben Schachter’s Eruv Maps In the world of art and culture the rabbis generally get a bad rap.  From time immemorial they have often been thought of as the prototypical zealous guardians, seen as prohibiting all sorts of imagery with righteous abandon, constantly erecting walls…
Arbit Blatas: Centennial Tribute Barbarism cannot triumph.  This is what we believe, as Jews and as Americans.  And yet it did a mere seventy years ago in the very heart of what was considered the cultural capital of Europe, Germany and Austria.  The rich cultural…
Piety and Art: Zvi Malnovitzer’s Paintings Piety and paintings of pious Jews, what a dangerous mix!  It takes considerable courage to dedicate oneself to making art, not to mention to do so within the orthodox community.  That is what Zvi Malnovitzer did.  He was raised…
Abel Pann at the Mayanot Gallery We live apart, us Jews. Partially by God’s command, partially because of age-old enmity from non-Jews.  It is even said by some that the hatred fostered by our neighbors strengthens us to keep our laws and traditions, helps us…
The Roots of Abstraction The road one chooses in Art, much like life, does not necessarily determine the final destination.  A youth can start in yeshiva and paradoxically end up a surgeon, a public school student can still find their way into the rabbinate.
The 613: Paintings by Archie Rand First there was the word.  It was spoken on the mountain and we were afraid.  Then it was written fire on fire.  And we lost faith.  Over the years Moshe wrote it down and we thought the word was…
A Year’s Journey in 50 Shuls To make a pilgrimage is to travel far and participate in something holy, singular and transformative.  On the death of a parent Jews make a pilgrimage thrice daily to a synagogue to participate in the same ritual, the kaddish…
Ten Portraits Reconsidered When an artist creates, intention, elementary to the creative process, is paradoxically secondary to the finished work.  Once the art work is on view in the larger world it must stand on its own, engaging the audience on its aesthetic merits and…

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