Each exhibit we present throughout the year represents Israeli and/or Jewish artists, spotlighting talent from within our Tidewater community, or from around the globe.

All exhibits are free and open to the public. Upcoming exhibits and meet-the-artist events are announced in our twice-monthly newsletter. Click here to sign up for that correspondence.

Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday | 9 am – 8:00 pm
Friday | 9 am – 6:00 pm
Saturday & Sunday | 9:00 am – 6:00 pm

UPCOMING GALLERY EVENTS

COMING IN JANUARY 2025

Through My Eyes: A War Diary by Shahar Dekel

This is my War Diary - an unfiltered look through my eyes as a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz and a reservist on the frontlines in Gaza and Lebanon.

I want to share this window into our lives on the battlefield. It's all here - the raw struggles we face daily, the unbreakable bonds we form, and how we cope with the impossible. Out here, we experience everything from the haunting smell of death to moments of pure joy, such as proposals and weddings.

This is my story - not just as a soldier, but as someone whose home became a battlefield. It's about how we keep living, fighting, and even finding moments of hope in the darkest times. Through my lens, I'm documenting both our worst days and our most human moments, showing what this war really looks like from the inside.

Artist Bio

Shahar Dekel is a filmography student at the Sapir Academic College in the South of Israel, and works as a photographer.

Passionate for all that cinema has to offer, Dekel has worked on a variety of projects, both large and small, and has developed a style that is both creative and professional.

Since October 7th, Dekel has been displaced from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Gaza Envelope. He has served as a reserve soldier in the IDF since October 8th, during which period he also married.

Dekel’s mission is to bring to life the stories of others, creating visuals that will last for generations to come. He believes everyone has a story to tell, and it is his job to help them tell it in the best way possible.

Dekel’s project “War Diary” documents the routine of being a soldier, a reality he has lived and breathed since October 8, 2023. He is drawn to the mundane, simple, marginal moments of this inconceivable situation.

Effrat Levy

Leon Family Gallery Hall of Remembrance

The Hall of Remembrance will feature the names of over 1500 Israelis who have lost their lives on or since October 7 at the hands of terrorists interspersed with prints of art by various Israeli artists who have used their art as a way to take action, tell the stories of individuals, call for political action, and foster unity.

Jaffe Family Fund
Carol and Joel Jason
Betsy and Ed Karotkin
Jodi and Jay Klebanoff
Teresa Knecht and Marc Lindgren
Anne and Edward Kramer
Celia Krichman Charitable Trust
Sierra and Steven Lautman
Edward Legum
Robert Lehman
Caren and Mrs. Stephen Leon
David Leon
Sandra Porter Leon and Miles Leon
Betty Ann and Scott Levin
Joan London
Robin and Matthew Mancoll
Laura and Jerry Miller
Marcia and Burton Moss
Stacie and Marc Moss
Andrew Nusbaum

Raul Palenzuela
Poole Brooke Plumlee PC
Mrs. Elinore Porter
Lisa and Howard Roesen
Sharon and Gene Ross
Sara Jo and Joel Rubin
Shikma and Danny Rubin
Deborah and Peter Segaloff
Laure and Richard Saunders
Beth Scharlop and Roger Schultz
Miriam Seeherman
Patricia and Herman Shelanski
Lynn Schoenbaum
Leslie and Lawrence Siegel
Edward Soltz
Lawrence Steingold
Renee and John Strelitz
Tidewater Jewish Foundation
Jody and Alan Wagner
Amy and Frank Zelenka

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact Hunter Thomas, Director of Arts + Ideas, at HThomas@UJFT.org or (757) 965-6137.

James Johnson

James Johnson has been creating for over 80 years. Now 85, Johnson began his artistic career at four years old, when his older brother was enrolled in art school and taught him how to paint. Johnson moved to Hampton Roads in 1969 and began painting murals during the warmer months while working in interior design the rest of the year. Eventually, he caught the eye of Wall Illusions in Norfolk, where he became an artist advisor and worked on many projects, including the extensive art restoration at the Commodore Theatre in Portsmouth, which he completed in 1990.

Following that project, Johnson returned to self-employment, painting murals at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. He has since dedicated over fifty-four years to mural painting in Hampton Roads in restaurants, schools, theaters, hotels, and government buildings.

Johnson has been a Simon Family JCC member since 2016, and is thrilled to present his artwork in the Leon Family Gallery.

Linda Dayan Frimer

Linda Dayan Frimer’s Luminous is a complex and intriguing work that mixes memoir, spiritualism, and meditations on art and color with reflections on Judaism and her own family’s roots through generations going back to Romania.

Frimer uses acrylics, oils, and watercolors, and collages photographs into mixed-media canvases. Some of her paintings are representational, others abstract, while others explore mystic images and juxtapositions.

Luminous also provides words of advice to aspiring artists and spiritual seekers, inviting the reader to join in, to tear a piece of paper and examine it, to paint a brushstroke, to put two marks of different colors side by side, urging the reader to join her on her artistic journey.

Creating a Clearing

Forest Lagoon

Light in the Forest

Sunflower Garden

The Meaning Within the Letters: A Framework for Connection

Paper Cuts by Nancy Schwartz-Katz

A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Nancy found Judaica to be the perfect medium for her to intertwine her artistic talent, love of learning, people, storytelling, and her Jewish heritage. Schwartz-Katz’s papercuts are an intricate play on the balancing of negative and positive space to emphasize concepts while telling stories of individuals, organizations, and history. Her art is in the collections of synagogues, hospitals, foundations, and hundreds of homes. She also exhibits nationally. Nancy lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with her family, her sweet dog, and grand-cat.

Crossroads & Connections: Collections of the National Library of Israel

This celebration of cultural treasures spanning nearly 1,000 years aims to inspire personal reflection on Israel and its history furing the State of Israel's 75th anniversary year. The selected items speak to the diversity of connections to the region and represent the land of Israel as a crossroads and center for exploration and connectivity.

This land - a destination, a homeland, an inspiration - has given rise to art, music, poetry, and writings that bind the stories of great civilizations past and present. The images featured in this exhibition reflect a variety of traditions, languages, and motifs, and offer a glimpse of the cultural and religous creativity and multiplicity of huan stories that have traversed the land and State of Israel.

The images in this exhibition were selected from 101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel, a new book bublished by NLI in honor of the openeing of the new Library building in 2023.