In Search of Transnational Jewish Art: Immigrant Women Artists from The Former Soviet Union in Contemporary Israel

Abstract

The article explores the subject of contemporary Jewish identity through the case of young immigrant women artists from the former Soviet Union in Israel, with particular emphasis on an analysis of the gendered aspects of their religious identity. Drawing on an interdisciplinary method, the research is based on in-depth interviews with artists, artwork analysis, and various theories from the social sciences and humanities. The article's main argument is that an analysis of the artistic practices of this and similar understudied social groups, particularly those practices undertaken in moments of conflict or times of deep social change, produces a more subtle understanding of the shifting modes of Jewish identity in the age of globalization and transnationalism, whose phenomenon of mass migration has led to the construction of new multi-hyphenated, hybrid identities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See, for example, Baigell and Heyd (2001), Baigell (2006, 2013), Baskind and Silver (2011), Kampf (1984), Kleeblatt (1996), and Soltes (2013).

2. See, for example, Omer (1998), Ofrat-Fridlander (2002, 2003), Shapira (1991), and Sperber (2010a).

3. There are many interesting questions related to the complex topic of “the Jewish experience” and its reflections in art, but those are beyond the scope of this paper. For further reading on “the Jewish Experience,” see Silberstein (1994, 2000).

4. The term “transnationalism” refers to a broad social phenomenon that gained force in the late 1980s and has involved fundamental changes in the nature of nation-states in response to massive waves of migration. Transnationalism carries significant implications for the way in which we conceptualize the phenomenon of migration, as its attendant processes of identity formation have been taking place simultaneously in many sites across the globe and involve people who are linked, physically or virtually, to more than one geo-national space. through family connections, economics, and national and cultural praxis.

5. Migration in Israel was the focus of several curatorial projects but these typically concerned the work of Israeli artists who look out toward the international art field and artistic styles, rather than analyzing incoming migration and its local challenges of assimilation. One such ‘outward-looking’ exhibition, “Paths of Nomadism,” was curated by Sarit Shapira in 1991 at the Israel Museum. A recent exception to this trend is the 2007 exhibition “Displacements” at the Bat-Yam Museum, which dealt with implications of immigration from various countries at a young age. See Gitzin-Adiram and Abir (2007).

6. For more, see Statman and Sapir (2014).

7. In Goldschmidt's official identity card issued by the State, the rubric of religion features an asterisk and the words “No Religion” (Màamad hasar dat). This wording appears in some 200,000–250,000 identity cards of Israeli citizens of FSU origin, in accordance with the Ministry of Interior instructions between the years 2002–2011. To date, about a quarter of a million Jews from the FSU are still considered “religion-less” (Hasrey dat).

8. Thus, for example, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, between 1990 – the first year of the great wave of FSU immigration – and 2000, the number of Israelis registered as married in Cyprus spiked, rising from 270 to 3,170, as their wish to marry in Israel was refused by the State.

9. For more on this, see Sperber (2012).

10. For more on the exhibition, see Sperber (2010b, 71–72).

11. See Glenny (2008).

12. Saitov (2014). “Artist Statement”. http://www.designed-in-israel.com/WorkPage.aspx?wID=2086&cid=29&eid=7.

13. For example, see the exhibition held at the Jewish Museum in New York in 2005, titled “The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography,” which addressed the racial, social and ethnic diversity of Jews in the United States.

14. See Wimmer and Glick Schiller (2002).

15. See, for example, Kleeblatt (1996).

16. For more, see Dekel (2011).

17. See Lior (2014).

18. See (Sperber 2102, 124–118). A prominent exhibition this subject, titled “A Tale of a Woman and a Robe,” was held in Tel Aviv in 2013. Its catalogue featured articles by prominent female figures such as Knesset member Alisa Lavie, the rabbi and lawyer Michal Tikochinski, former Knesset member Orit Zuaretz, and gender scholar Dr. Ktzia Alon, all of whom openly called for a reform of the century-old custom of men conducting the religious ceremony of women's immersion. For more, see Miller Jackson (2014).

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Notes on contributors

Tal Dekel

Tal Dekel is Head of the Women and Gender Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University and she is a lecturer at the Department of Art History, Tel Aviv University. She specializes in contemporary art and visual culture in Israel, taking a particular interest in gender, religion and transnationalism. Her recent work focuses on migration's impact on Israeli society through the work of immigrant women artists. She has published extensively in international journals and has curated exhibitions such as References – Gender and Migration in Israeli Art (2015). Among her books are Gendered – Art and Feminist Theory, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2013) and Women and Migration – Art and Gender in a Transnational Age, Resling Press (2013) [Hebrew].