Laya Crust
Illuminations: Exploring Haftarah Through Art
The Haftarah is a Bible reading that follows the Torah reading each Shabbat and every major Jewish holiday and fast day (82 total).
The Haftarah is traditionally written by a scribe on scrolls of animal parchment. Beth David Synagogue in Toronto commissioned a Haftarah scroll in 2013 and later commissioned Laya Crust to create a painting for each haftarah of the year.
Crust painted these illustrations directly onto the scroll in gouache paint, and has now reproduced them in her book, Illuminations: An Exploration of Haftarah Through Art and History.
Laya Crust is an internationally recognized artist and soferet (Torah scribe). Foremost a painter, Laya creates handmade artist books, ceremonial objects, and architectural installations. She has also written and illustrated several books. Laya’s work is in collections throughout the world. She teaches, leads workshops, and gives lectures on art and Jewish text. She lives with her husband in Toronto.
A Tale of Two Histories
150 Years of Jewish History in Tidewater and Israel
Presented as a partnership between United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Portsmouth Jewish Museum and Cultural Center
Help us continue to build upon the intertwining narratives of Jewish history in Tidewater
alongside transformative events in the land of Israel.
- Have you lived in Israel? Did you make a trip as a child?
- Were your grandparents one of the first members of your congregation?
- Do you volunteer in your synagogue’s archive?
Submit scanned photos to Hunter Thomas, Director of Arts + Ideas, at HThomas@UJFT.org. Printed copies are also accepted and can be shared by mailing them or dropping them off, with
attention to Hunter Thomas, to the Simon Family JCC.
Submissions will be accepted throughout the run of the exhibit through August 2023.
Photos will not be returned. If you need help making a copy, please let us know.
PhotoHouse: Israel @ 75
Rudi Weissenstein, Curated by Ben Peter
The world-renowned PhotoHouse is one of Israel’s most valuable and monumental private archives of historical photographs. Founded in 1936, it has been owned and operated by the same family for three generations.
Rudi Weissenstein captured millions of photos of pre-state Israel into the beginning decades of her early statehood. His grandson, Ben Peter, currently oversees the collection, which is the largest private photo archive in Israel, comprised of approximately one million negatives.
In 1936, Rudi Weissenstein arrived from Europe at Jaffa Port in Israel with nothing more than a press photographer's certificate and a set of cameras. Weissenstein saw the need to archive the monumental events happening in his new homeland. He traveled throughout the country, documenting the birth and growth of a nation. His photographs have been published worldwide and have received numerous accolades.
In 1940, alongside his wife, Miriam, Weissenstein founded the PhotoHouse - now the largest privately owned photography archive in the State of Israel, containing over one-million negatives. The couple's grandson, Ben Peter, continues to manage the PhotoHouse and its entire archive, keeping his grandparents' legacy alive.
In celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut, this Sandler Family Campus-wide exhibit of PhotoHouse photographs, specially curated by Ben Peter, will be on display in the Leon Family Gallery and Copeland Cardo through June.
Proceeds from art sales will benefit Arts + Ideas programming at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. Please visit the Simon Family JCC front desk to purchase. All photographs were printed on fine art premium photo paper and framed in-store at the PhotoHouse in frames made of natural wood veneer. To learn more about the PhotoHouse or to purchase other prints, visit ThePhotoHouse.co.il
Generous support for this exhibit provided by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.
The Four Corners of the World: A Celebration of World Wildlife
from renowned photographer, environmental diplomat, entrepreneur and explorer, Roie Galitz.
Roie travels to the world's most extreme habitats and documents animals as never seen before. Acutely aware of nature's distress as human activity increases its influence, Galitz has become a Greenpeace Ambassador, performed 3 TED talks, and is a keynote speaker in many events worldwide. As an entrepreneur, Roie has founded several companies with the love for photography, creation and our amazing world at heart. He serves in executive boards and advisory boards on sustainability and pressing environmental issues.
As a wildlife photographer, Roie pushes his limits, both creatively and physically. He travels all over the world, to the most extreme, just to return with the most epic images he can. His images have won over a hundred international awards and were published in countless magazines including the Smithsonian, National Geographic and alike. Joint and solo exhibitions were held in museums and galleries in 5 continents and his fine art prints are sold in limited series. His Videography has also reached amazing peaks, including participating in 2 films in the BBC, short videos in National Geographic and other TV channels. The BBC film "Snow Bears" film has won the GDT award for excellence in photography.
Generous support for this exhibit provided by the Embassy of Israel.
Jean-Pierre Weill
Evolve: A Children's Book for Adults
Who am I?
With this question as its guide, Evolve takes readers on a philosophical and pictorial adventure into the nature of the self. Through the artistic exploration of three foundational biblical stories, Evolve interlaces words with pictures that delve deep into the emotionalcore. It is a modern midrash told with imagery.
Jean-Pierre Weill was born in Paris and grew up in New York. He is a painter and author of picture books for adults that explore philosophical and spiritual ideas. His work has been sold in galleries and museums throughout the world.
Jean-Pierre and his wife, sculptor Rachel Rotenberg, reside in Jerusalem.
Generous support for this exhibit provided by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.
Malkah’s Notebook : A Journey into the Mystical Aleph-Bet
Mira Z. Amiras & Josh Baum
Malkah is a child when her father tries teaching her to read Torah. As Malkah studies, she embarks on a lifelong journey in search of her beginnings—into Jewish mystical texts, far-off places, archaeological digs, ancient gods, and ultimately into the nature of existence itself. With highly evocative illustrations, Malkah’s Notebook is a love letter to the Hebrew alphabet that unlocks life’s greatest mysteries.
On exhibit November – December 2022.
In partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of idewater and UJFT's Konikoff Center for Learning
Unfolding Nature: Dancing Through Waves
Shony Rivnay
Shony Rivnay (b. 1952) is an interdisciplinary Israeli-American artist based in Tel Aviv, Israel. He works in various media including painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performance.
Rising Tides, Rising Tensions: Renée Calway
with dedicated contributions from the community, especially Kelly Jackson, Michael Corcoran and Destini Harrel
The sea level continues to rise. Social and economic tensions have always existed; now both are becoming more apparent. This piece confronts the rising tensions our community is seeing through a scope of truth which reveals socio-economic inequalities that lead to disparity in the neighborhoods most affected by flooding.
Rising Tides/Rising Tensions is a traveling educational exhibit meant to spark conversation in the community and is currently touring Hampton Roads. To find out where the exhibit is currently being displayed, or to bring the exhibit to your school, business, or house of worship, please contact Renée directly: reneecalway@gmail.com.
A Feast For the Eyes: Netanel Israel
Netanel Israel is an Israeli photographer who partnered with chefs Gili Ben Shahar and Ohad Kvity, the masterminds behind Tel Aviv’s Meat Carneval. The chefs and Netanel visited Tidewater in 2022 during the community celebrations for Yom Ha'Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.
The photographs previously on display in the Leon Family Gallery were part of a collection of photos featured in Ben Shahar and Kvity’s cookbook, "The Book of Meat," currently available only in Hebrew. For more information about Netanel, visit isra.pic-time.com/portfolio, or email natan1isra@gmail.com.
The Four Corners of the World: A Celebration of World Wildlife
from renowned photographer, environmental diplomat, entrepreneur and explorer, Roie Galitz.
Roie travels to the world's most extreme habitats and documents animals as never seen before. Acutely aware of nature's distress as human activity increases its influence, Galitz has become a Greenpeace Ambassador, performed 3 TED talks, and is a keynote speaker in many events worldwide. As an entrepreneur, Roie has founded several companies with the love for photography, creation and our amazing world at heart. He serves in executive boards and advisory boards on sustainability and pressing environmental issues.
As a wildlife photographer, Roie pushes his limits, both creatively and physically. He travels all over the world, to the most extreme, just to return with the most epic images he can. His images have won over a hundred international awards and were published in countless magazines including the Smithsonian, National Geographic and alike. Joint and solo exhibitions were held in museums and galleries in 5 continents and his fine art prints are sold in limited series. His Videography has also reached amazing peaks, including participating in 2 films in the BBC, short videos in National Geographic and other TV channels. The BBC film "Snow Bears" film has won the GDT award for excellence in photography.
Generous support for this exhibit provided by the Embassy of Israel.
Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik’s You Did What to My Comics?!?
Isaac is a Jewish artist living in Southern California. His cut and reassembled paper is made of clean lines and patterns, sinuous shapes and sharp edges, large fields of color balanced with small intimate spaces.
Through his art, Isaac explores the stories and traditions of the Jewish people, filtered through the twin lenses of the traditional art form of papercutting and contemporary pop culture narratives. Blending ancient stories and the glossy-meets-gritty world of comics in seamless graphic compositions, Brynjegard-Bialik’s work is emblematic of the 21st century’s mash-up culture.
Isaac and his wife, Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik, presented “Paper Midrash” sermons and workshops as a part of the Milton “Mickey” Kramer Scholar-in-Residence fund of the Congregation Beth El Foundation’s Tidewater Together Series.
Rae Stern's In Fugue: Hypomnemata
Handmade paper works, illuminated with both natural and artificial light. Five selected pieces hang from the atrium ceiling, hovering above the public forum and visible upon entry to the building.
Stern's work focuses on the elusive and ephemeral nature of memory as both a personal and universal phenomenon. The photographs that inspired this group of works on paper were chosen by Stern out of the images she collected for her immersive installation Outside Time.
Download a media release about the exhibit.
Generous support for this exhibit provided by the Embassy of Israel.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact Hunter Thomas, Director of Arts + Ideas, at HThomas@UJFT.org or (757) 965-6137.