Pillow Talk at the Israel Museum
David Polonsky?s illustration for Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen?s ?A Moonless Night.? Image by Courtesy of the Israel Museum
Crossposted from Haaretz
When Kobi Ben Meir was working on the Israel Museum’s new “Good Night” exhibition, he constantly had the song “Layla, Layla” playing in his head. In the end, the curator chose to sing the song on camera, in a hesitant voice and with a very embarrassed expression. It’s now part of the video artwork “Lullaby” and displayed as part of the exhibition.
In this marvelous video work, artists Hadassa Goldvicht and Anat Vovnoboy filmed visitors and the museum staff — from the director and the curators to the security guards and the sanitation workers — singing their own private lullaby: The one that their mother sang to them in childhood. The two artists set up a small room in the museum, and for months invited people to enter and be filmed. The enclosed space gave the participants a sense of privacy and allowed them to surrender to both the camera and their feelings while singing.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
