What does it mean to reduce the contemporary Jewish experience to a series of quotes, objects, stereotypes and to conclude an exhibit by placing a live human in a glass box to answer the questions of museum-goers (regardless of merit or cultural sensitivity)?
Regarding either Jewish or feminist art, we may ultimately be stuck with Justice Potter Stewart\’s comment about pornography, \”I know it when I see it.\” And perhaps that will be the most valuable contribution of this exhibition.
Kosher has come a long way from designating merely a set of obscure dietary restrictions that are strictly observed by only a minuscule fraction of the world\’s population. According to a 2005 Mintel Organization International report, Kosher is a $14.6 billion industry and ranks among the fastest-growing segments in the retail food business.
While other photographers have sought to document Chasidism from more of an insider\’s perspective, Maya Dreilinger purposefully maintained her distance as an outsider. She wandered around the La Brea area dressed as she normally does and refused the occasional invitation to dinner at someone\’s home.
\”Makor/Source\” marks the first time that the Hillels of the two universities have collaborated on an exhibition. Roughly 20 local artists submitted works to the show, including collages, paintings and photographs.
The Skirball Cultural Center, in the most ambitious artistic project in its nine-year history, will present the first American survey of the painter\’s life and works in \”Max Liebermann: From Realism to Impressionism.\”
A large, striped blue-and-white flag bearing the phrase, \”Liberation!\” greets visitors at the Museum of Tolerance exhibit, \”Liberation! Revealing the Unspeakable,\” about the Allied soldiers and the starved, dying and dead Jews they discovered while liberating concentration camps.
In a hallway there is a row of photographs of soldiers who became the saviors of survivors. Then, down a set of stairs to the main exhibit area, one gallery wall features a 1945 poem written by an unnamed survivor upon learning of Hitler\’s death:
I have outlived the fiend
My lifelong wish fulfilled
What more need I achieve
My heart is full of joy
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