Austrian Jews have praised a Viennese former museum director who resigned because of board members’ ties to an art collection which belonged to a pro-Nazi film director. “The resignation of the director of the Leopold Museum, Tobi G. Natter, is a bold step,” the Jewish Community of Vienna, or IKG, wrote in a statement. Natter…
Dozens of Dutch museums are in possession of at least 139 items with “problematic origins,” a special commission on stolen Holocaust-era art in the Netherlands has determined. The list that the Committee for Museum Acquisitions from 1933 onwards published on Tuesday includes priceless items that are in the hands of 41 museums, including world-famous institutions…
When the Foundation for Jewish Culture closes its doors sometime next year, there won’t be many mourners saying Kaddish. Instead, the prevailing communal sentiment may very well be: “Yawn. We have too many agencies; one less will not matter!” But Kaddish ought be said for the FJC. The group’s lonely mourners will be those of…
“This is the first major event I have ever produced,” said Ram Ozeri about the Jerusalem Biennale, taking place in Israel’s capital until October 31. “Well, the first major event other than my wedding,” he quipped. All joking aside, it was no easy task to put together six simultaneous exhibitions of contemporary Jewish art in…
Last year, Elise Bernhardt, president and CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Culture, gave a talk at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federations of North America about her favorite biblical character, Bezalel, “the original multi-media artist.” Without Bezalel, she argued, there would be no mishkan, no portable dwelling place for the divine. And without…
Approaching Milwaukee’s Helfaer Community Service Building, which Edward Durell Stone designed in 1973, it’s easy to be fooled by the windows. At first glance, the landscape-oriented building, nestled a block off Lake Michigan, resembles an enormous 10-by-3 wine box partition, with negative space peeking through the dividers. But however deceptive the highly reflective windows may…
(JTA) — The reader opened with a recitation of Psalm 48 followed by a contemporary poem before yielding the floor to five male dancers, all wearing the standard haredi Orthodox uniform of black pants and white button-down shirt. One had bushy earlocks but no yarmulke. So began the inaugural Jerusalem Biennale, a six-week contemporary art…
Jewish art is not hip. It can be beautiful, sure. It can be meaningful, of course. It can be valuable, no doubt. But cutting-edge? Current? Cool? Meh. If you believe that, you clearly have not yet been to the first-ever Jerusalem Biennale for Contemporary Jewish Art, which opened this week at five venues around town,…
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