You may not expect Haredi artists to display their work alongside images from the Quran and New Testament, but three women did just that in what was celebrated as an “unprecedented” exhibition.
“Genesis: The Beginning of Creativity,” was housed in sections at the Jewish Theological Seminary and two nearby churches last month, and continues online in a permanent digital offering. It includes artists from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and secular backgrounds for an exhibit that brought religion to the fore.
Artists Yehudis Barmatz, Bruria Finkel, and Goldie Gross hail from a range of Haredi backgrounds and live on different coasts and continents, but they joined each other in displaying work in “Genesis.” Barmatz, based in Israel, contributed a meditative sculpture; Finkel, in California, an enigmatic quadriptych; and Gross, in New York, a fresh take on an old story,
The exhibition encompasses stories from the first four chapters of Genesis, the Book of John, the Quran, and later literature from all three traditions.
From Bais Yaakov, to a BFA and Breslov.
For Barmatz, going back to “In the beginning,” meant going back to some of her beginnings.
“Breishit was the first Parsha I ever learned, after learning to read,” Barmatz told Shtetl in an email interview, corresponding from her home in Israel. “It sits at the base of the unconscious.”
Barmatz, who grew up attending a Bais Yaakov school in Boston’s Litvish community, contributed a piece made from papier-mâché and found materials, entitled, “The Old Man with the Extra Long Beard.” As the name suggests, it depicts an elderly man seated on a tree stump, which is installed on a wall, like a floating shelf. A long beard of rope collects in his hands in loose, plunging spools.
“He is as old as the earth is, the archetype of the old man, the figure from midrashic tales, the core soul of Adam,” Barmatz said.
An imaginative gloss rather than a literal representation of the first human creation, Barmatz’s “pensive and accepting” man, in her words, is an extension of her interest in the psychology of Carl Jung; she says she uses Jung’s “study of culture, symbolism, and archetypes” to explore religion and the human condition.
Today, Barmatz observes religiously as a Breslover Hasid, just like her very first art teacher from middle school, whose encouragement led her off the “beaten path” for a typical Bais Yaakov student, to obtain a BFA from the Pratt Institute. “Perhaps his guidance is what brought me to marry a Breslover Chassid from Bnei Brak.” She and her family live on Moshav Yesodot, a Haredi farming community in central Israel, where Barmatz has built a community art studio.
The Kabbalist in California.
Bruria Finkel’s “Mayim Sham Mayim” is the most esoteric of the three Haredi contributions to the exhibition. Created with acrylic paint on Japanese handmade paper, the four-part piece offers its interpretation of the story about the seven days of creation, addressing divisions – between light and dark, sea and sky – and related cycles.
“My work covers cycles,” she told Shtetl. “Cycles of time, cycles in human beings, cycles in nature; that was very attractive to me, to deal with cycles, because they are a phenomenon and something we experience every single day.”
Finkel pointed out that the Hebrew word for sky, shamayim, spelled out at the bottom of her piece, is composed of two words, sham and mayim, which respectively mean “there” and “water.” She said it is a quirk that invites us to consider the water cycle, in which water on earth evaporates and becomes clouds – water over “there” – before returning as precipitation.
The daughter of Polish immigrants, Finkel, who now resides in California, was raised Hasidic in Jerusalem. Her family’s home did not have art on the walls when she was a child, so Finkel said she “absorbed” her attention in symbols: her mother’s challah, or the engravings of a tall house and a tree on her father’s kiddush cup.
She named 13th-century Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia as a “very important influence” on her thinking ever since she translated one of his pieces in the 1960s. In Abulafia’s spirit, her work is “heavily involved in kabbalistic imagery,” but it is guided by an “intuitive sense” before any preconceived image. She will be opening a solo exhibition about meditation, using Abulafia’s concept of the Hebrew alphabet, at the Jerusalem Theater on October 8th.
A “Triple Threat” on Forbidden Desires.
Goldie Gross updates two classics – Albrecht Durer and the story of Adam and Eve, in her piece, “Forbidden Fruit.” Applying oil paint to custom wood panels crafted by Aaron Ciner, Gross depicted two nude figures standing on either side of a green bush.
“I wanted to create an Adam and Eve for the modern day,” Gross said. “Instead of etz hadaas [“The Tree of Knowledge”], with an apple, it [is] a coffee bush with coffee beans,” which Gross says makes her subjects “a little more contemporary.” Her piece is based on Durer’s painting, “Adam and Eve,” completed in 1507.
Gross grew up in Crown Heights and comes from a Chabad-Lubavitch background. In addition to contributing an art piece to “Genesis,” she served as a chief curator for the exhibition alongside co-curators Joel Silverstein and Richard McBee, corresponding with artists, editing the catalog, and helping select pieces.
“She’s a triple-threat,” Silverstein raved about Gross, referring to her talents as a writer, editor, and artist. “I sing her praises.”
Gross, Silverstein, and McBee hold various leadership roles at the Jewish Art Salon (JAS), a hub of contemporary artists and art professionals that was established in 2008 and has more than 400 members. To present this exhibition, JAS partnered with CARAVAN, an international arts nonprofit that fosters artistic “encounter points” by bringing together artists of “divergent backgrounds,” according to their website.
“It seemed like the whole world was pulling itself apart – politically, religiously, spiritually,” Silverstein said of the context that gave birth to “Genesis” when the three curators began work about three years ago. “Art has the ability to bring people together and heal.”
Asked about Haredi participation in the larger art community, JAS Founding Director Yona Verwer said it is “increasing” and that JAS has a number of Haredi members beyond the three featured in this exhibition, such as Yitzchok Moully, Leah Caroline, Shoshannah Brombacher, and Zalmen Glauber — founder of Shtetl Gallery (unconnected to this publication) in Williamsburg’s Condor Hotel, which has marketed itself toward the “greater public.”
“There are many incredible artists coming from Orthodox backgrounds,” Gross said. “A lot of them make really, really, really good art.”
District Details
includes Forest Hills, Kew Gardens and a small part of Rego Park. This area is home to a large Bukharian community and a Litvish community.
- Lynn Schulman (D, incumbent), who is Jewish, has a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. A member of the council’s LGBTQIA caucus, Schulman signed a letter urging Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ club on campus. Schulman has used discretionary funds to contribute to local causes such as education, youth programs, workforce development, parks and clean-up services; she’s also contributed to a Jewish soup kitchen, local congregations and local Chabad chapters.
- Ethan Felder (D), who is Jewish, is a union-side labor lawyer. He told Patch he supports raising the city’s minimum wage and hopes to improve public safety by addressing mental health. In 2017, Felder won a case where he worked pro bono to reverse the move of a polling place away from a predominantly African American residential area in Queens. In April 2020, he signed a letter to then-mayor Bill de Blasio that criticized what it described as the mayor’s singling out and heavy-handed policing of the Jewish community and Haredi gatherings during the pandemic. Later, in May 2021, after a major outbreak of violence in Israel and Palestine, Felder organized a rally in Forest Hills in support of Israel.
- Danniel Maio (R) is a mapmaker. He has criticized bail reform, congestion pricing and COVID-19 restrictions.
- Sukhjinder Singh Nijjar (D) works at the Queens District Attorney’s office. He has also worked in finance. He told Shtetl his top priorities include funding educational programs to tackle hate crimes and violence and ensuring language access for all languages spoken in his district. He supports QueensLink, a project that looks to provide a new north-south transit link in Queens while also supporting new parks.
includes the part of Williamsburg west of Wythe Avenue and southeast of Ross Street. This area is one of the centers of the Haredi community; it has a large Satmar population.
- Lincoln Restler (D, incumbent), who is Jewish, has the support of progressive Jews and Haredim alike. He was endorsed by several Satmar leaders and Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein, who represents Boro Park in the state legislature. Restler has also won the support of The Jewish Vote, the political wing of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, a progressive Jewish organization in New York City. In 2022, he attended an annual celebration by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. He supports policies that would shift the development of affordable housing to nonprofits rather than for-profit businesses. Last year, he released a climate plan for his district designed to reduce emissions, expand green space and infrastructure and build coastal resiliency. He has worked to reduce trash and rats by organizing neighborhood cleanups, adding trash bins, encouraging residents to compost, and using discretionary funding to pay homeless New Yorkers to help provide sanitation services. Restler spoke with The New York Jewish Week about fighting antisemitism. “I am focused on bringing together all groups in the Jewish community to engage with people of other backgrounds and build tolerance to root out this violence,” he said.
includes portions of northeast Williamsburg, where many Hasidic Jews live.
- Jennifer Gutiérrez (D, incumbent), a former tenant organizer, has held office since 2021. She supports increasing tenant protections and shifting the development of affordable housing to nonprofits rather than for-profit businesses. She also believes in improving internet access, expanding participatory budgeting, open streets, universal 3K, and reinvesting part of the police’s budget into non-policing alternatives. As a council member, she helped pass a bill to provide no-cost doula services to marginalized neighborhoods. She previously worked as chief of staff to former City Council member Anthony Reynoso, who is now the Brooklyn Borough President. In a survey she completed for New York Jewish Agenda in 2021, Gutiérrez said she thinks the state should inspect Haredi yeshivas and intervene if they are found to not be providing adequate education in English, math and science. She also said the city should fight hate crimes by increasing culturally responsive education and funding community-based organizations dedicated to violence interruption and restorative justice practices.
includes the southern part of Crown Heights, which houses the World Headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.
- Crystal Hudson (D, incumbent) has held office since 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hudson founded a mutual aid group to help people experiencing food insecurity and economic challenges. After assuming office, she visited the Library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad and met with members of the Jewish community there. As the chair of the City Council’s aging committee, Hudson supports the Fair Pay in Home Care Act, a bill being considered in the state legislature that would increase the minimum wage for home care aides to $22.50 in New York City. In September, Hudson introduced a package of bills to make it easier for older New Yorkers to age in their homes. The bills would ensure a right to counsel for people 60+ who are facing eviction, ensure older adults have access to services in their native language, and make it so that a portion of new apartments built are accessible to people with disabilities, among other things. Hudson’s other priorities include child care, affordable housing and holding the NYPD accountable.
includes a small part of Boro Park northwest of Maimonides Medical Center.
- Alexa Avilés (D, incumbent) is a democratic socialist. Before joining the City Council, she worked in nonprofits and was a PTA president. As chair of the council’s public housing committee, she supports increasing tenant protections. Her priorities also include defunding the NYPD, investing in social services and expanding public hospitals. Boro Park 24 reported that when Avilés was first elected in 2021, she volunteered at Masbia, a local soup kitchen, and praised its work.
- Erik Frankel, who is Jewish, is a fourth-generation shoe store owner. His priorities include building affordable housing and supporting trade schools. He supports removing the BQE or placing it underground. In 2021, he told New York Jewish Agenda he supports increasing criminal penalties for hate crimes. He said he doesn’t think the state should investigate Haredi yeshivas, which have reportedly failed to teach students English, math and science.
- Christopher Skelly (Ind) is a public school custodian and a libertarian who supports the NYPD. If elected to City Council, he hopes to create an Office of Transparency.
includes part of Boro Park northeast of 42nd Street, and Kensington, where many Haredi Jews also live.
- Shahana Hanif (D, incumbent), a former tenant organizer, has held office since 2021. As chair of the council’s immigration committee, she supports asylum seekers’ rights. She also advocates defunding the police, expanding protections for small businesses, expanding health services, legalizing basement apartments, and making sure social services are accessible to New Yorkers in their native languages. In 2019, after a group of boys were picked up by the local precinct for throwing eggs at their Jewish neighbors, Hanif brought together a coalition to educate Boro Park and Kensington residents about antisemitism and hate in Bangla and Yiddish.
includes part of Flatbush, which hosts Sephardic and Haredi communities.
- Rita Joseph (D, incumbent) is chair of the council’s education committee. Before joining the City Council, she worked at the U.N. and then as a public school teacher. She supports a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and welcomes the asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the city. In an interview with WNYC, she discussed crime; “Neighborhoods that are under-resourced always have the most crimes. So we want to make sure we’re bringing resources into the community to support job training, housing, youth services and education,” she said. “NYPD is part of the solution, but not the whole solution." She also emphasized cleaning up trash on Flatbush Avenue, and she has funded tree planting in the district. Last year, Joseph called attention to antisemitic subway graffiti on Twitter and notified the NYPD and MTA. “I condemn this hate in the strongest possible terms,” she wrote.
includes part of Boro Park southwest of Maimonides Medical Center, where many Hasidic Jews live. It also includes parts of Bensonhurst and Gravesend, where many Syrian Jews live. Newly created from sections of District 47 as part of the redistricting process, District 43 has no incumbent.
- Wai Yee Chan (D) is the director of Homecrest Community Services, a nonprofit that serves Asian American immigrants and seniors in Southern Brooklyn. She also serves on the Language Assistance Advisory Committee of the city’s Civic Engagement Commission. Chan told Gotham Gazette that her biggest priorities include public safety, improving services for special needs families, and expanding mental health care so that it covers all seniors in the district.
- Stanley Ng (D) is a retired computer programmer. His priorities include public safety, improving education, and fighting food insecurity. In 2007, he fought against a free course designed to help students ace admissions tests for elite public high schools. The program emphasized serving Black and Latino students, who are underrepresented at elite public schools. Ng sued the program, arguing that it discriminated against Asian Americans, and the lawsuit was settled.
- Ying Tan is a candidate for City Council. Shtetl has not been able to find more information about Tan but will update this article when it does.
- Susan Zhuang (D) is Chief of Staff for state Assemblymember William Colton, who represents parts of South Brooklyn. Her priorities include education, safety, and combating hate crimes. According to an interview with Gotham Gazette, she wants to increase funding for the NYPD.
includes most of Boro Park, one of the centers of the Haredi community. Communities in Boro Park include the Hasidic sects Bobov, Ger, Satmar, Belz, Munkatch and more. Some Litvish, Sephardic and Modern Orthodox Jews also live in Boro Park.
- Kalman Yeger (D, incumbent) is an Orthodox Jewish lawyer, who has represented Boro Park since 2017. He succeeded David Greenfield, who went on to become the CEO of the Met Council. In 2019, Yeger was removed from the council’s immigration committee when he said “Palestine does not exist.” Yeger has used discretionary funding for Holocaust education, youth programs, workforce development, fighting domestic violence, services for elderly New Yorkers and more; he’s also supported local Jewish organizations. According to City and State, however, Yeger has never asked the council speaker to fund projects in his district, something most other council members do, as a way of accessing more discretionary funding. After the New York Times published an investigation of Haredi yeshivas, detailing their failure to provide secular education and the corporal punishment that students there face, Yeger defended the education that these schools provide. Yeger successfully opposed plans for a new apartment building at 1880 Coney Island Avenue. He also opposed a proposal that would require car owners to get permits to park in residential areas.
- Heshy Tischler (R) is an Orthodox Jewish landlord, radio show host, and permit expediter for construction companies. He garnered wider attention in 2020, when he protested against COVID-19 restrictions in Boro Park. He later pled guilty to inciting a riot against a journalist who was covering those protests for Jewish Insider. He also attracted controversy for sexist comments about former mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife Chirlane McCray. He supports Donald Trump and the NYPD. Tischler volunteers for multiple causes, including helping people with special needs. If elected, he hopes to decrease bureaucracy, build youth centers and drug rehabilitation centers, support after-school childcare programs, and introduce legislation to support landlords and small business owners against late payment fees. Tischler supports Haredi yeshivas’ independence.
includes Marine Park, where the Haredi population has grown in recent years as some have been priced out of other Brooklyn Haredi enclaves.
- Mercedes Narcisse (D, incumbent) has represented parts of Southeast Brooklyn in the City Council since 2021. Narcisse was a nurse for 30 years and also ran her own business. Her priorities include access to mental health care, after-school programs, sports, and music programs for youth. She hopes to help bring ferry service to Canarsie.
includes Coney Island and a small part of Gravesend. The old District 47, which includes Bensonhurst and Gravesend, is currently represented by Ari Kagan. Because of redistricting, that district has been divided into other districts. In this unusual situation, Kagan has been left to battle the sitting City Council member of District 43, Justin Brannan, to represent the new District 47.
- Justin Brannan (D, incumbent) represents Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Bath Beach in the City Council. As chair of the council’s finance committee, Brannan has a powerful role in shaping the city budget. When he campaigned for office in 2017, he was criticized for taking money from real estate interests and accused of neglecting to disclose all campaign expenses. While in office, he has cosponsored and helped pass the city’s new salary transparency law and, according to Brooklyn Paper, was instrumental in bringing to Bay Ridge a ferry route that goes express to Wall Street. He hopes to help bring a ferry to Coney Island, too. Appearing on WNYC, Brannan called public safety his first priority and suggested that much of the discourse surrounding crime is driven by hysteria generated by right-wing news media. “When you walk down the street, do you really not feel safe, or do you not feel safe because the New York Post and Fox News is telling you that you shouldn’t feel safe?” he said.
- Ari Kagan (R, incumbent) is a Jewish immigrant from Belarus whose parents survived the Holocaust. He has represented parts of South Brooklyn in the City Council since 2021. He has also worked as a journalist for Russian-language media. His priorities include supporting the NYPD, increasing access to mental health services and restoring the Coney Island Boardwalk. In 2022, Kagan switched parties from Democrat to Republican because he disagreed with Democrats over public safety and other issues. Speaking to NY1, Kagan attributed recent antisemitic attacks to bail reform.
- Anthony Batista Perez (D), a U.S. Army veteran, worked for state Assemblymember Mathylde Frontus, who represents parts of southern Brooklyn in the legislature.
- Anna Belfiore-Delfaus (R) is a public school special education teacher who strongly supports the NYPD and opposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
- Avery Pereira (R) is a public school special education teacher. He supports the NYPD and advocates cutting property taxes for middle-class homeowners by 15%.
- Michael Ragusa (R) is an associate director of operations at Rikers Island. He is also a podcaster and former EMT. He supports increasing the number of police on streets, in parks and on subway platforms, and cracking down on fare evasion. Ragusa’s other priorities include helping small businesses, improving education, improving mental health services, and improving subway and bus service.
includes portions of Flatbush, along with Sheepshead Bay, which has a large Haredi community and a large Russian and Ukrainian Jewish community.
- Inna Vernikov (R, incumbent) is a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant. She is a lawyer who has represented parts of southern Brooklyn in the City Council since 2021. As a council member, she has protested COVID-19 vaccine mandates. She also organized a march against antisemitism after a man was attacked in Bay Ridge for wearing an Israel Defense Forces hoodie. Previously a Donald Trump supporter, she condemned the former president in 2022 after he had dinner with prominent antisemites Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Nick Fuentes. Vernikov stopped giving discretionary funding to The Museum of Jewish Heritage after it allegedly barred Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from speaking there. She also cut discretionary funding to the CUNY School of Law after its faculty council passed a pro-BDS resolution. Vernikov’s priorities also include supporting the NYPD and reducing trash and rats in her district.
- Amber Adler (D), who is Orthodox Jewish, has worked in communications, marketing, and politics. Adler spent two years as an agunah (a woman whose husband won’t grant her a divorce under Jewish law) and made an appearance on the controversial reality show “My Unorthodox Life” to advocate for women escaping abusive marriages. Along with women’s rights, Adler’s biggest priorities include tenant rights, health care, the environment, supporting small businesses, expanding childcare, supporting students with special needs, and making the city more accessible to people with disabilities. She also hopes to break language barriers by providing access to information in residents’ native languages, including Yiddish. In a survey she completed for New York Jewish Agenda in 2021, Adler indicated that she supports increasing penalties for hate crimes. She also said she would consider supporting investigations and interventions in Haredi yeshivas on a case-by-case basis.
- Igor Kazatsker (R) has worked as a journalist for Russian-language media. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was also general manager of the American Forum of Russian Jewry-Russian American Jews for Israel.
includes Staten Island neighborhoods Willowbrook and Manor Heights which, in the last few years, have become home to many Hasidic families.
- David Carr (R, incumbent) hopes to expand the size of the city’s police force and restore qualified immunity, a legal principle that protects police officers from certain civil rights lawsuits. New York City banned qualified immunity in 2021. “I think we need to do more to empower the police, raise morale so we have fewer people seeking to retire or resign from the department, and then also have a plan to rebuild to get us to a point where we have a police force that’s actually adequate to police a city that’s closer and closer to 9 million people,” Carr told WNYC. Recently, the council passed his bill to lower interest rates for some property tax late fees. He criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
