Gallery Owner: Every Piece of Judaica Has a Story

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
By Donald Liebenson

Judaica from the Arthur M. Feldman Gallery

ILLINOIS---Part art gallery, part museum and part salon, the Arthur M. Feldman Gallery is back in business in Highland Park. The storefront location at 465 Roger Williams Ave. opened last month after Feldman previously operated a gallery of antiques, fine art and Judaica in downtown, first on St. Johns Avenue and then on Central Avenue. Feldman, a second-generation antiques dealer with degrees in art history and archaeology, served as director of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. To continue educating the public, Feldman will present exhibitions under his banner Jewish Museum of Chicago. The first, a showing of commissioned Purim masks created by professional Chicago artists, is scheduled for March 2014. [link]

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Nevet Yitzhak Exhibit Peels Off the Prevailing View of 'Islamic Art’ as 'Monolithic and Mysterious'.

HAARETZ
By Galia Yahav

From 'Orient Express': Shows experts as genies returned to their bottle.

ISRAEL---One of the most wonderful aspects of “Orient Express,” the brilliant exhibition of works by Nevet Yitzhak at Jerusalem’s L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, is the resounding answer she gives to the superficial, cliché-filled discourse on Islamic art. It is a discussion that defines Islamic art as a “rich, ancient, much respected culture” in a generalized manner that, as it declares the wealth of ancient Islam, presents Islamic art as homogeneous, monolithic and bereft of any nuances. [link]

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Utah Art Exhibit Stretches the Definition of ‘Spiritual’

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
By Peggy Fletcher Stack


UTAH---You would, of course, expect to see lots of angels at a spiritual art exhibit — as well as Jesus, Madonnas, biblical figures, crosses, steeples, Hindu gods and Islamic prayer rugs. But birds, beggars, books, flying maps and beams of light? "You can find the sacred in nature and ordinary objects," says Rita Wright, curator at Springville Museum of Art’s annual "Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah Exhibition," where these works are on display. "We stretch the definition of ‘spiritual’ to include many images that are not conventional iconography." The show celebrates the experimental nature of younger artists, she says, who are trying to express their intuitive spirituality. [link]

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Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art Receives National Recognition

TULSA WORLD

OKLAHOMA---The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, which is said to house the largest collection of Judaica in the Southwest, has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It joins Philbrook and Gilcrease as Tulsa's only accredited museums. Just 6 percent of the nation's 17,500 museums are accredited. "Accredited museums have met and exceeded the highest standards of the museum field in everything they do," said Ford W. Bell, president of the alliance. [link]

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At a NYC Temple Proud of Its Traditions, a New Rabbi With ‘Alternative’ Ideas

THE NEW YORK TIMES 
By Sharon Otterman

Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson, 45, is the newly installed senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. The rabbi has already broken with some of the temple’s customs.

NEW YORK---Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson, the new senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Temple Emanu-El is a place that prides itself on tradition. It still uses a version of the original Reform prayer book, and dresses its clergy in robes. It conceals its choir above the congregation, near the organ console at its enormous Fifth Avenue sanctuary, so that prayers seem to float from the heavens. But Rabbi Davidson has already begun making his mark. He broke with an older Reform tradition of not wearing a Jewish skullcap and prayer shawl, by wearing them when he began to lead services this summer — resulting in an audible gasp from the congregation. But he also wore his robes, in a sign that custom and change could go hand in hand. [link]

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Judaica on View During Hanukkah at Metropolitan Museum

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Hebrew Bible on display at Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW YORK---The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates Hanukkah—the Jewish Festival of Lights, through the evening of December 5—with two medieval depictions of the Temple menorah are on view at . Additional works of Judaica will be on view during and after the holiday. The menorah, an elaborate ceremonial lamp with seven branches, was among the furnishings of the Temple in Jerusalem. Its form considered to be divinely ordained, the menorah has been a recognized symbol of Judaism from ancient times.

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The Best Jewish Children’s Books of 2013: The Perfect Hanukkah Gifts

TABLET MAGAZINE
By Marjorie Ingall

"Hanukkah Bear" illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka

PUBLISHING---No kid wants underpants as a Hanukkah gift, and no one wants virtuous, boring books, either. So, this year’s quirky list of the best children’s books is focused on fun and engaging reads rather than good-for-you literature. Here are the top 18 (chai!) for 2013.[link]

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It's a Turkey. It's a Menorah. It's Thanksgivukkah!

DAILY MAIL

It's a turkey. It's a menorah. It's Thanksgivukkah! An extremely rare convergence this year of Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah has created a frenzy of Talmudic proportions. There's the number crunching: The last time it happened was 1888, or at least the last time since Thanksgiving was declared a federal holiday by President Lincoln, and the next time may have Jews lighting their candles from spaceships 79,043 years from now, by one calculation. [link]

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Tell Your Children to Standup

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Greg Disney-Britton



For Chanukah, I celebrate God's gift of my bestfriend Laurie who stood up for her gay friends as children of God, and did so in the face of Christian bigotry. During Chanukah Jews remember how one tiny sanctified jar of oil was found in the Temple after it had been rampaged and desecrated. From this small amount of pure oil emerged a light that miraculously would not go out. Laurie is like that light, and this video shared by Rabbi Yitzchok Moully, the 2013 A&O Prize Clergy Advocate of Year tells another version of such hatred and desecration. Entitled, "Tell Your Children" it is the story of a Jewish child who escapes Nazi execution only to experience religious bigotry again as a senior. Still she stood up. Chanukah is about standing up, and celebrating lights in the darkness like Laurie.

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A Ketubah Shows the Promise That Turned a Young Printer Into a Renowned Artist

TABLET MAGAZINE
By Annie Abrams

Detail of Marriage Contract, Printer: J. Bien, New York,
New York, United States, 1852 (Courtesy of the Jewish Museum)

NEW YORK---As their ketubah makes clear, Cornelius Roos married Caroline Elsasser at New York’s flagship Reform synagogue Congregation Emanu-El on Jan. 11, 1852. The wedding contract includes many other names: the groom’s father Raphael Roos, the bride’s father Asher Elsasser, the officiant Rabbi Leo Merzbacher, and witnesses E. Lyons and J. Cahn. But the most significant name on the ketubah might ordinarily be overlooked, since it appears in small letters along the bottom border of the page: printer Julius Bien, who would go on to have an illustrious career making maps and lithographs of animals, landscapes, and machinery. Today, artwork bearing Bien’s name can be found at institutions like the Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Butler Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Smithsonian American Art Museum. [link]

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Ohio Exhibition Invites Museum's Visitors to Ponder God

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Sampling of the works by 30 artists from around the world on display in Canton, Ohio

OHIO---The Canton Museum of Art presents "Sacred Voices" an interfaith exhibition of contemporary works by over 30 artists from Australia, Austria, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Inspired by the Christian, Jewish, or Muslim faith, the imagery and artistry combine to offer fresh perspectives on religious texts, narratives and traditions of all people. "Throughout much of history, art and religion have been closely intertwined," said guest curator Michele Waalkes. "For some artists, the creative process itself becomes an act of faithfulness." The Canton Museum of Art (CMA) is one of Ohio's premier locations for an exceptional visual arts experience.

Canton Museum of Art: "Sacred Voices" (December 5, 2013 - March 2, 2014); 1001 Market Avenue North, Canton, OH; 330-453-7666; cantonart.org

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Faith and art battle in ‘My Name Is Asher Lev’ in Coral Gables, FL

MIAMI HERALD
By Christian Dolen

Etai BenShlomo plays a young artist, Avi Hoffman his mentor and Laura Turnbull
an art dealer in Aaron Posner's 'My Name Is Asher Lev' at GableStage. George Schiavone

FLORIDA---The best playwrights -- Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, Tony Kushner and Nilo Cruz are just a few from a long list -- create richly specific worlds laced with more broadly resonant themes. One needn’t be of those worlds to be transported by their stories and connect deeply with the issues the playwrights are exploring. In adapting Chaim Potok’s 1972 novel My Name Is Asher Lev for the stage, Aaron Posner tries to conjure that magic mixture of specificity and universality. The play examines the lifelong emotional tug-of-war between Asher and his father, and between religious beliefs and artistic principles that run counter to those beliefs. [link]

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Billionaire Collector Gives Boston Museum a Solid Base in Judaica

THE BOSTON GLOBE
By Geoff Edgers

A Hanukkah lamp from the Schusterman collection.

MASSACHUSETTS---The billionaire collector from Oklahoma was in Boston two years ago when a friend invited her to visit the newly built Art of the Americas wing at the Museum of Fine Arts. Lynn Schusterman was impressed. But the Jewish philanthropist noticed an enormous hole in the MFA’s collection. The largest museum in Boston owned barely any relics of Jewish life and customs. Judaica is an increasingly popular field that features objects used for religious occasions. Thanks to Schusterman, that has changed. This week the MFA will announce that Schusterman has given the museum 119 objects, an important infusion into a collection that, until now, numbered just 12 works. [link]

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Art for the Soul: Alter Rebbe by Chaim Leib Zernitsky

CHABAD.ORG

"Portrait of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi"

CANADA---Chaim Leib (Leon) Zernitsky has created fine art and illustrations for international magazines, book publishers and major corporations for over 25 years. He has published over 30 books for children and young adults and won numerous awards. Chaim Leib feels that creating Jewish art is an important part of being a Jewish artist, and his paintings can be found in private collections worldwide. "Portrait of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi" (above), the first Chabad Rebbe, who was released from prison and able to continue spreading Chassidism on this day, the 19th of Kislev. [link]

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$1.47 Million Grant Launched New Jewish Arts Program at George Washington University

THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD
By Renee Ghert-Zand

WASHINGTON, DC---Hot on the heels of a new graduate program in Jewish Cultural Arts, George Washington University has announced an additional new MA program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts. Whereas the first program focuses more on arts administration and museum management, the second is meant to train educators for professional roles in today’s broad and varied Jewish cultural landscape. The program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts, the first of its kind in the U.S., is set to begin this coming summer thanks to a $1.47 million grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation. [link]

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Celebrate Hanukkah on Your Smartphone with Free App From the Jewish Museum

YAREAH MAGAZINE

NEW YORK---The eight day holiday of Hanukkah begins at sundown on Wednesday, November 27th 2013.The Jewish Museum’s Hanukkah app, which debuted in 2012 and has now been expanded, is available for free in the App Store and on Google Play. The app is perfect for those without a menorah, travelers, students, or anyone seeking a flexible, fun way to mark the holiday. Light My Fire: A Hanukkah App allows users to select a contemporary or traditional Hanukkah lamp from the Museum’s renowned collection, choose a unique background to place it on, light the lamp, and then share it with their family and friends. [link]

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Exhibition Review: Iraqi Jewish Documents at the National Archives

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Edward Rothstein

An 1815 copy of the mystical Zohar is part of the "Discovery and Recovery" show at the National Archives.

WASHINGTON, DC---They are ragged, warped, torn, stained. And that is after extensive restoration. This new exhibition, “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage,” presents just 24 artifacts (and some reproductions) selected from 2,700 volumes and tens of thousands of documents the American military found submerged in four feet of fetid water in the Mukhabarat, Iraq’s intelligence building. Those items, which had been collected by the Iraqi office investigating Israel and the Jews, span five centuries of Jewish life in Iraq. It took weeks for the American team to gather them, set them out to dry and ship them — in disarray and black with mold — to the National Archives. Much still awaits being restored and digitized at the archives’ laboratories in College Park, Md. [link]

National Archives: “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage,” (Ends Jan. 5); Constitution Ave. NW [between 7th & 9th St.], Washington, DC; 866-272-6272; archives.gov

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A&O Meetup in NYC: Marc Chagall, on Nov. 16, 2013

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory Disney-Britton

"In Exodus" (1952-1966) by Marc Chagall

NEW YORK---Meetup with Greg and Ernest Disney-Britton at "Chagall: Love, War and Exile," at the Jewish Museum of New York this Saturday to share the experience of "Marc Chagall: Love, War, and Exile. It's on view until February 2, 2014, but the Disney-Britton's are only at the Jewish Museum NYC on Saturday.

• Artist:  Marc Chagall (1865-1985) 
• Exhibition: "Marc Chagall: Love, War, and Exile" 
• Periods: Expressionism, Surrealism, Cubism, Fauvism
• Location: Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Ave, New York, NY
• When: Saturday, November 16, 2013, 11:00 a.m.
• How: A&O believers wear blue, or call (317) 919-0570.
• Cost: "Free" for Sabbath Saturday.

An app is available for both iPhone and Android, but that's not the same as being there in person. So, let's Meetup and share the journey on November 16, 2013.

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The Right Way to Say ‘Godot’ is Yiddish

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Dave Itzkoff

Patrick Stewart as Vladimir and Ian McKellen as Estragon
in “Waiting for Godot,” which opens on Nov. 24 at the Cort Theater.

NEW YORK---Maybe Godot never appears because everyone is mispronouncing his name. More than 60 years after the debut of “Waiting for Godot,” Beckett’s absurdist drama about two vagabonds anticipating a mysterious savior, there is much disagreement among directors, actors, critics and scholars on how the name of that elusive title figure should be spoken. “GOD-oh,” with the accent on the first syllable, is how “it should be pronounced,” said Sean Mathias, the British director of the latest a Broadway revival of “Waiting for Godot,” opening later this month at the Cort Theater. Shane Baker, who translated “Waiting for Godot” into Yiddish, said that actors in this version of the play said “god-OH” because “that’s how it’s known in America.” [link]

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Art Review: Chagall: Love, War and Exile

JEWISH PRESS
By Richard McBee

The Wedding Candles (1945) by Marc Chagall

NEW YORK---Groundbreaking and courageous. The current exhibition at the Jewish Museum has tackled what is easily the most vexing subject in the career of the most famous of Jewish artists: Marc Chagall (1887–1985) – namely, his persistent, indeed obsessive, use of the crucifixion as a symbol of Jewish suffering and persecution. The exhibition: “Chagall: Love, War and Exile,” under the expert direction of Senior Curator Emerita Susan Tumarkin Goodman, has traced Chagall’s lifelong fascination with the emblem of Christianity, especially in his work created during the Holocaust. [link]

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