Contemporary Still-life Paintings
Work by Del Grosso Hauptman

Koch Wesselmann and others

Sweet Home Indiana: 1930's Rural

Landscapes of Lawrence McConaha

September 15 - October 28

DAVID KLEIN GALLERY

163 TOWNSEND BIRMINGHAM MI 48009
Fax 810.433.3702
Telephone 810.433.3700

Finding A Woman Of Valor

Buy One Ticket
Get One

Modern Israeli and American women
consider an ancient poem.

FREE

FRANK PROVENZANO SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

W

with this
ad

exp. 10/31/95

682-1900

FOR TIMES
& FILMS

Not valid
on
Saturdays

OSC

"The Laughing
Stock of Michigan"
Voted #1 Comic By
His Family

FRIDAYS, 9 p.m.

GINO'S
COMEDY ROOM

1999 CASS LAKE RID.
Keego Harbor

810-682-6540

LJJ

90

Touch A Life.
The United Way.

J

hether Orthodox,
secular or anything
in between, Jewish
women from every
sphere of Jewish life are likely
to agree on one interpretation of
"A Woman of Valor." Found in
the last chapter of the Book of
Proverbs, the Bible's ideal
of woman leaves an unequivo-
cal challenge to any mortal fe-
male.
Typically read at funerals and
on Shabbat as a solemn invento-
ry ofJewish feminine attributes,
the 3,000-year-old poem "Aishet
Hayil" is being cited more fre-
quently at weddings as a cele-
bration of the feminine spirit.
Most recently, it has been set to
artistic interpretation.
In response to the opening, "A
woman of valor, who can find?"
Yeshiva University Museum in
New York City invited 32 Amer-
ican and Israeli women artists
to interpret the initial question
and subsequent 22 lines of
the poem. In early October, the
exhibit moved to the upper
gallery at the Janice Charach
Epstein Museum/Gallery at the
Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield. The exhibit
runs through the end of the
year.
"It's far from a one-dimen-
sional show," said Sylvia Nelson,
director at the gallery. "From
raising childremand juggling jobs
to doing charity, women today
are like the pieces of the poem."

Collectively, the lines of
"Aishet Hayil" make it clear that
women assume many roles, re-
sponsibilities and tasks in Jew-
ish religion and culture. To
some, the mere invoca-
tion of the "Aishet Hay-
il" as a standard of
virtue demonstrates a
woman's choice to lead
her life in the tradition
ofJewish heroines.
Throughout the ex-
hibit, the various works
seem tied together not
only by references to the
"Aishet Hayil," but the
common themes of
home, family and food.

Above: Ray Katz makes a
tribute to the "evolutionary
process of life."

Right: "Women today are like
pieces of the poem."

It's hardly surprising
that the artistic re-
sponses in the Janice
Charach Epstein Muse-
um/Gallery are as di-
verse in style as the
personalities and atti-
tudes of modern-day
Jewish women. The
artists have responded
to the poem in ceramics,
textiles, paintings and
ceremonial construc-
tions, such as a chuppah
and garments.

The work in the exhibit
ranges from crafts to the alle-
gorical, from the playful to the
spiritual. With a balance of the
ritualistic and the post-modern,

