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| "God
- She Loves Everyone" 2012 Digital color photograph, 16 in. X 20 in. by
Heddy Abramowitz (courtesy of the artist and HUC Museum) |
If love makes the world go round then I guess that sex must be the
fuel. Though certainly one of the most universal of bonds between human
beings, at times it seems that vast cultural divides in our attitudes
toward sex separate us wider than the parting of the Red Sea. Crossing
through these waters safely is as fraught with tension as ever for
members of the tribe.
In
a rather courageous move, the Hebrew Union College Museum in New York
has mounted an exhibit examining attitudes towards sexuality within
Judaism, called "The Sexuality Spectrum" (see catalog
here).
The exhibit is housed in the Rabbinical College of the Reform movement,
the stream that is regarded as the most liberal in its outlook. It is
running for the course of the entire academic year.
In the name of full disclosure, I am one of the participating artists in the exhibit. And I am an Orthodox Jewish woman.
In
all fairness, this will not really be an art review of the exhibit; it
is inappropriate for me to review a show I am in. This will more closely
be a kind of anthropological study of the art works I found that most
affected me when visiting the exhibit, an orthodox voyeur out of her
element.
Please understand that I am not the poster child for
Orthodox women, some would describe me as “orthodox lite” (this is
generally not a compliment) since I probably don’t dress too differently
than the general public and do not cover my hair, but the observation
of the Sabbath and holidays, kosher dietary laws and other aspects of
orthodoxy, including a familiarity with the waters of the mikveh (ritual
bath) have all been part of my personal practice. As an artist, I am
also somewhat of an anomaly in the Orthodox world, though I find this to
be less unusual than once.
Social activism was at the germination
of the exhibit. Frustration and a sense of powerlessness propelled
curator, Laura Kruger, to mount the current exhibit at HUC. In 2011, the
NY State Legislature was voting on “The Marriage Equality Act.” When
confronting her anger that other fellow human beings may be refused the
right to marry, besides writing a donation check or showing up at a
demonstration – she funneled that anger into amassing artwork for the
current exhibit at HUC.
The movement for Reform Judaism, over the
course of the past 40 years has taken upon itself a willingness to be
inclusive of Jews of all sexual orientations - this despite a biblical
quote which is understood to prohibit sex between men, as well as a
discouraging attitude towards any non-heterosexual sex practice.
Traditional Judaism only recognizes sexual activity between a man and a
woman within the sanctification (kedusha) of
marriage according to Jewish law,
and there is a practice of sex separation during a woman’s monthly
cycle considered a fundamental of marital life, as well as other
limitations.
Kruger spent a year seeking out artwork that would
address presumptions about gender, and chose works that provoke thought
and challenge traditional Judaism. Avoiding the highly explicit or art
that would be offensive to any of the streams of Judaism, she hoped to
enable the open-minded and curious to view the exhibit and add to a more
expansive conversation within Judaism. In my own experience, it would
be an unusual free-thinker from the ultra-orthodox world that would
consider the subject matter and exhibits appropriate for viewing, in a
population not best known for breaking ranks over the controversial.
The
curatorial premise behind the exhibit is that all sexual practices form
a continuum of human behaviors and that heterosexuality is just one
expression of this. When my work was accepted to be used in the exhibit,
I really only had the vaguest idea of its parameters. The press release
for the show’s August mounting appeared, announcing:
"The
HUC-JIR Museum staff held numerous focus groups of artists, asking them
to share their intimate feelings concerning their lives as LGBTQI in
the community, including their faith-based experiences…. They shared
their long years of concealment as well as the wrenching experience of
‘coming out;’ their relationships with family members, employers, and
friendships that disintegrated; and the search for life-long partners."
I
live in Jerusalem, geographically and culturally distant from the NY
venue. I was not aware of these meetings, and further, I live in a city
that, while there is certainly a gay community and some of its members
are no strangers to me, people I admire and respect, it is a city which
rarely wears its heart on her sleeve. Jerusalem is a fairly conservative
city, in dress and in religious outlook, for Jews, Christians, as well
as for Muslims. Holiness is to Jerusalem what baseball is to other
cities. Not everyone is a fan, but you cannot be unaware of its
presence.
I confess, the first thing I did when reading this quote from Kruger, was to Google the letters
LGBTQI to
find out the range the exhibit was covering. And, I had to ask myself,
too, what does it say about me that I, as an orthodox woman, am
participating in this exhibit that does not follow my stream of
Judaism’s outlook and beliefs? Would I be sorry I had agreed to join in?
It was with mixed feelings that I attended the October opening of the
exhibit.
The Jewish Quarter in the Old City, where I have lived
over three decades is no longer the pluralistic neighborhood that drew
me to make my home here. A very small secular presence of families still
exists amongst a large orthodox block. Though there are many stripes
within the block, the distinctions are nuances known more to the
residents than to outsiders who would see it as a monolithic unity of
orthodox Jews living in the community comprised of 600 homes.
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| "Two One Way Streets" © 2013 by Heddy Abramowitz (corner of HUC Museum, NY, not in exhibit) | | |
It
was from this world that I crossed into the cultural milieu of the
exhibit location, bordering the East Village of Manhattan. Exiting the
subway, I passed names like Bleecker Street, Fourth Street, and other
echoes of my early music heroes Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and
others; I passed the NYU Law School campus near Union Square to the
doors of the HUC Museum.
Typically for me, I was running a little
late, and I arrived with the opening well underway, which eventually
climbed to over 500 attendees. While no surprise in NY, it is far in
excess of the more modestly attended openings one gets used to in
Jerusalem. Size was not the only difference. A quick glance around made
it clear that I was far from home. There were the expected
kippah-wearing
women, a phenomenon that, while not common, one does see occasionally
in Jerusalem. There were also same sex couples clasped in hugs and
intimacies that are very uncommon to see in public in Jerusalem, not to
mention that any public displays of affection between heterosexuals are
frowned upon in some religious circles. Long-skirted women, the black
suit white shirt and tie – worn as a uniform, men's beards and hats and
women's wigs which are so ubiquitous in Jerusalem were notable in their
absence.
The speakers included a dean of the HUC Rabbinical School, who
introduced herself as a Rabbi and feminist. Her articulate remarks and demeanor were in my mind when I later saw the exhibits.
Amongst them was a photograph by
Joan Roth, called "Gay Wedding" of a wedding between two women in a Jewish sanctuary; their joy was obvious. Jerusalem weddings are “same sex” only
in the sense that the dancing or the dinner might be separated by a
mechitza
– a barrier to prevent social mixing of the sexes, designed to reduce
temptations and ensure fidelity to one’s spouse, but definitely not a
same-sex couple marrying. Permission to marry is entirely within the
purview of the individual religious authorities; Jews needing the
approval of the Chief Rabbinate, an orthodox body, whose authority is
often criticized, even prompting a trend to wedding tourism to Cyprus
since no civil marriage exists in Israel. By this time I knew that I was
not in Kansas anymore, but in an environment that was sure to jiggle my
comfort zones.
I returned another day to leisurely examine the
exhibits by 57 international artists, in addition to collateral pieces
culled from cartoons, magazines, and from other popular culture sources.
In conversation with the curator, Kruger elaborated on her motivation
to examine these controversial subjects through art. Referring to the
caustic rhetoric surrounding the passing of the same-sex marriage bill
in NY, she said,
"Prejudice and discrimination are
blinding neon lights – no different than what the Nazis said about the
Jews in 1938. What would be next?"
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| "Pansy
Crucifixion" 1988, Color photographs, prismacolor, acrylic wash, ink,
paper, 32 in. X 30 in. by Judy Chicago (Courtesy of Nyehaus Gallery and
HUC Museum) |
Indeed, the exhibit includes works which referenced Nazi persecution of homosexuals in World War II by Richard Grune,
Estelle Yarinsky,
Linda Soberman and
Judy Chicago. Perhaps best known for her iconic installation, “
The Dinner Party,”
Chicago's 1979 installation shook up the art world by focusing on
accomplished women through history in individual table settings based on
a variation of the triangle- a symbol for the vagina. Here, in “The
Pansy Crucifixion,” the triangle was used in a different context
entirely, the pink triangle which was used in Nazi concentration camps
to designate homosexuals, (much as the yellow star, a double triangle,
designated Jews in the Nazi lexicon of dehumanization) and connected
that symbol of shame to the AIDS illness that continues to afflict so
many. The work includes three male bodies cramped within the triangular
space, contorted in suffering but also, perhaps, alluding to gay love.
The pansy flower visually echoes the sarcoma lesions of the illness and
the pejorative insult used to describe gays, the various associations
ringing sadly true. German
Grune’s work, a 1947 lithograph, serves as testimony to his own incarceration as an “undesirable” homosexual under the Nazi regime.
Helene Aylon, a pioneering feminist artist, exhibits her
piece which
magnifies the biblical quote calling homosexual relations an
abomination. This is one of the sources for Judaism’s position which
prohibits homosexuality. From there, the exhibit investigates many
artists’ approaches to the world of the forbidden, the marginalized and
gender presumptions. With many works to ponder, the exhibit would
benefit by a more spacious setting and more clear delineations for the
groupings of subject matter.
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| "Ironing It All Out" 2011 Wood, paper, found objects 47 in. x 48 in x 20 in. by Lewis Cohen (courtesy of HUC Museum) |
Some of the works which examine gender presumptions include
Lewis Cohen‘s “Ironing
it all Out” where domesticity is represented by the mundane act of
women’s old fashioned manikin hands ironing a man’s shirt with
apologetic and conciliatory phrases imprinted upon it. Stressing the
anachronistic in his choice of wifely duties in these days of permanent
press, Lewis' work does serve as a reminder of the traditional
subservience of women in the home and the still relevant tensions of
individual’s accommodations in marriage, sometimes sacrificing personal
esteem at the altar of marital “success.”
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| "The
Ladies Guild: Temptress" 2010-11, Paper-cut 10 ½ in. X 13 ½ in. by
Jacqueline Nicholls (image courtesy of the artist and HUC Museum) |
British
Jacqueline Nicholls
presents delicately executed paper-cuts in the form of doilies that
once lined the platters at synagogue social events, and exemplified the
only possible aspiration for female congregants in the all-male run
synagogue of her youth: attractively presenting refreshments. On closer
inspection, “The Ladies Guild: Temptress” is formed by various lace-like
nude women hiding their body parts as they surround a rabbinic quote
where a virgin is said to pray that she not lead men to sin. Never mind
that any sinning would derive from the mind of the man, and that she is
left feeling self-conscious about her young body and shame.
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- "4%
of Us" 2011 Paper clay, found object, 3 in. X 23 in. x 13 in. by Andi
Arnovitz (image courtesy of the artist and HUC Museum)(photo: Avshalom
Avital)
|
Of particular interest to the Orthodox community should be the work by Israeli-American Andi Arnovitz, “4 % of Us.” In this work, a tabletop vitrine is filled to the brim with multiple clay paper objects denoting tiny fetuses in utero.
For Orthodox couples who scrupulously adhere to the practice of
separation following a woman’s menstrual cycle, it is known that 4% of
women cannot conceive since they ovulate during the prescribed time of
separation. Arnovitz is anxious to have the rabbinic authorities adjust
the strict interpretation of the law to take into account this avoidable
loss to couples who seek to fulfill the biblical mandate to “be
fruitful and multiply.” While the Orthodox may well identify with the
injustice of this issue, and even agree with the artist that a new
interpretation is warranted, will that sense of outrage carry over to
other strict interpretations and injustices that this exhibit addresses?
With
your indulgence, I will discuss my own works in this exhibit. After
moving my studio to Nachlaot, my daily routine included traversing a
neighborhood full of contradictions. At once both secular and orthodox,
home to the down and out as well as to the upscale, it is an area that
is grungy, eclectic and rich in off-beat treasures for a street
photographer to mine. My four photographs which are shown document the
debate that rocks around the Gay Pride Parade. Photographing found
graffiti, which become visual “wall-flowers,” disappearing in the
scatter of sprayed wall markings and the jumble of templates amidst
neglected walls and corners, some of these spoke to me as deep truths.
One, “God She Loves Everyone” seemed to flip our presumptions about the
Creator, to whom we do not attribute a gender in Judaism, yet we usually
refer to as male in Hebrew, a dual gender language. Probably men think
nothing of this, yet this piece of graffiti causes pause in viewers as
they consider the female verb choice and whether this resonates in a
different, softer, perhaps more maternal way, putting the stress on the
feminine attributes of God. Another, “I Am Proud To Be a Genetic Defect”
shows the internalization of the vicious rhetoric hurled in the gender
battles. And below, in "Hate Will Not Win" are two skirted stick
figures, hand in hand, suggesting that same sex couples and human love
will ultimately succeed over baseless hatred.
There were many works which addressed same sex attraction, including
that of Kobi Israel in “Intimate Strangers,” an ex-pat Israeli and one of several Israelis participating
in this exhibit, whose photograph "Akedah" graces the catalog cover.
Unlike the U.S. Army, the Israeli army never had a policy of Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell, and, he notes that soldiers living as one sex together could
find themselves in a circumstance that went beyond the homo social, or
same gender living, such as one-sex dorms, to the homo-erotic where the
joint living situation might arouse attraction, triggering identity
questions in this most macho of settings. Israeli mainstream culture
still employs the slang reference to gay men as “homos” without raising
any eyebrows.
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| "My Maggie" 2000 Lithograph, etching 20½ in. X 23 ½ in. by Joan Snyder (courtesy of HUC Museum) |
Some of the works addressed the desire for finding life-long relationships.
Joan Snyder,
a leading abstract expressionist painter, displays what the catalog
describes as a " very personal print" in the frank search for the proper
social reference for one's life companion, considering and rejecting
each description or title till simply arriving at the proper name in “
My Maggie.”
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| "Erev Shabbat" 1993 Silver gelatin print 18 in. X 22 in. by Albert J. Winn (courtesy of HUC Museum) |
Personally compelling was a photograph of a familiar domestic scene by
Albert J. Winn.
In “Erev Shabbat” we see the photographer staring into the camera from
the living room sofa and the typical Friday night scenario of lit
Sabbath candles and flowers in a vase are on the table behind him, a
scene of domestic contentment. It is another man, rather than the
traditional woman/wife/mother, who apparently has brought in the
tranquility to the home that comes with lighting the candles, one of
very few religious obligations that fall upon women. This scene prodded
me to understand that just because one’s sexual practices cross accepted
norms, the desire for the weekly rhythm of the renewal in the form of
Sabbath observance may be seen as just as strong a need, and that,
perhaps, there is no inherent conflict in that. I couldn't help but
think: as it should be.
Once one accepts that all are “created in
God’s image,” and acknowledges that people are born with different
physical attributes built into our DNA, it is hard to avoid the
conclusions which follow logically: all people want and need love,
intimacy and home life with those that they choose. Modern science has
provided solutions for those that want to raise families, one cannot
hide behind the desire to perpetuate the Jewish people as a goal to
prevent the establishment of non-traditional families.
Yet, religion is not about logic, it is about faith and belief. The
nature
of the Jewish religion for observant Jews has always included a
reigning in of personal freedom by adhering to the dictates of the
“yoke” of the religion, taking on the responsibilities, beyond the Ten
Commandments, that the observant Jew is to follow throughout their
lives, the 613 observances,
a kind of spiritual GPS for life, meant to get you to your goal.
Observant Jews believe first in the primacy of God, and that following
the Torah and its commandments is a trade-off in passing up on the
short-term, fleeting rewards of the present material world to achieve a
higher level of holiness in the present as well as a delayed reward in
the more significant world to come.
Just as there are
restrictions on eating, refraining from consuming pork, shellfish, etc.,
there are restrictions on life decisions despite the inconvenience or
temptation. Descendants of the ancient priests, Cohans, still are
forbidden to marry certain women, such as divorced women. Relations with
the opposite sex are also restricted outside of a marriage in
accordance with Jewish Law (with certain rare exceptions that I won’t go
into, as I am no Rabbi).
It would be disingenuous to suggest that
all this willingness to adhere to such strict adherence to religious
life is easy or simple for the average person. And, it isn't always pure
belief that motivates people to tow the line in their lives and abstain
from the enticements of the forbidden. Sadly
,
there is also a strong aspect of discipline within the religion,
including rabbinic courts, social pressures to conform rather than risk
being shunned by one's synagogue, having the "right" schools turn down
one's children, or the fear for lack of appropriate matches for children
of marital age. Unfortunately, even self-appointed vigilante
"enforcers" have been known to intimidate those
who are subjectively deemed too free. Would that all followers of
Judaism be motivated by the pure love of their faith. For many it is a
purity of belief, but for some it is a system that they are born into
and that they feel helpless to disengage from. For others, the all
encompassing aspect of the religious life is too much for them and
stifles their uniqueness severely, leading them to deviate from the path
that they were born into, with some eventually unchoosing their People.
As
any driver today knows, a GPS is not infallible. Even when followed
explicitly, who hasn't at least once found the directions faulty? Often,
the instructions have not quite kept up with road maintenance changes,
and by following the instructions blindly one can find one's self
“at
your destination” in an abandoned field or dead end. The “reigning in”
of nature’s hard-wiring leads to the known path of repression, identity
confusion, teens escaping their homes to street life and homeless
shelters (explored
here
by Joshua Lehrer), suicides, hypocritical double lives with a
conventional wife and family to cover for one’s actual secret practices,
and an unfulfilled wife whose own sexual satisfaction to which her
marriage contract entitles her, effectively abandoned as emotional
collateral damage in a marriage that is a farce.
None of this is a
pretty picture. Rabbi Rachel Adler advocates re-interpretation of the
Torah texts as a way out of this conundrum in her catalog essay, where
she concludes:
"My hope is the LGBT rabbis show us a
way people can live by these texts and not die by them… it says…”You
shall live by them”- meaning by the commandments. And the rabbis
comment, “and not die by them.” Not have your selfhood stifled or in
hiding. Not be bullied or bashed. Not, God forbid, commit suicide. But
live, pridefully, openly, and joyously."
Is all fair
in love and the gender wars? Can Judaism become everything to everybody?
If the family, the most central structure of Judaism, is subject to
reinterpretation, is it the same religion, or does the re-thinking morph
the religion into something unrecognizable as Judaism? Will children
resulting from same-sex marriages be considered "kosher" for all Jews to
marry, or will the results of this new outlook just create higher
ghetto walls of self-protection for the more traditionally-minded? And,
for the gay children born into Orthodoxy, will their parents mourn them
as they marry their gay partners, as was a traditional response by
parents when their children married non-Jews? The ties that bind us, our
children and grand-children, eventually won out in that scenario that
was once common for the committed Jew.
This exhibit seems to be
largely directed to the choir. It is hard to imagine that the Orthodox
world will soon find itself sitting on the same side of this issue with
these advocates for change. The sad statistics of Jewish demographics
today include high assimilation rates, high intermarriage rates, and
climbing divorce rates. On the other hand, amongst the Orthodox world,
there is a high rate of heterosexual marriage often resulting in large
families, accounting disproportionately for continuity of the Jewish
people numerically, as well as closely preserving classic Jewish
observance. Will more lax rabbinical interpretations of ancient texts
and rattling the chain of thousands of years of tradition destroy
Judaism or allow for more humane inclusion?
All this leads one to ask: Where does the future of the Jewish people lie? And with whom?
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| "Hate Will Not Win" 2012 Digital color photograph 16 in. x 20 in. by Heddy Abramowitz (courtesy the artist and HUC Museum) |
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum 1 West Fourth Street (Between Broadway and Mercer) New York City: Through June 28, 2013
This post was originally published on the Times of Israel here:
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/love-sex-jews-are-we-there-yet/
The post was re-published on Cultural Weekly
here:
http://www.culturalweekly.com/artists-explore-being-jewish-being-sexual-roots-of-prejudice.html
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