48 | SEPTEMBER 28 • 2023
J
N
I
t has been almost 20 years since
multi-media artist Michelle Sider learned
about the plight of Jewish people com-
pelled to leave Yemen, and it has been some
four years since she began communicating
about them by designing mosaic images.
With 10 images completed in the “I Am
Yemenite” series and more images being
planned, Sider has secured display space at
ArtPrize, a Grand Rapids exhibition and
competition held in summer and autumn
since 2009. Represented are international
artists, and this year the display lasts until
Oct. 1.
Sider’s images, based on a compilation
from photos and considerable research, are
being shown at Uccello’s Ristorante, 122
Monroe Street NW
.
“I believe the history of Mizrahi Jews
(those basically from Middle East and North
African nations) is an incredible part of his-
tory that has been overlooked,
” said Sider, a
Huntington Woods resident who traces her
own background to the Ashkenazi popula-
tion.
“The driving force behind this whole
series is to educate, and I would love for this
series to be a spark for Jewish educators to
widen their scope to include a more global
and inclusive focus.
”
In preparing her images out of glass, met-
als and pottery found during a trip to Israel,
Sider has read books and magazine articles
and interviewed people who can trace the
Yemenite culture in their own heritage.
People interviewed have included those
married into her family and a professor at
the University of Michigan.
Sider has told about learning of different
prayer rituals, holiday customs and special-
ized foods that have been associated with
the Yemenite ways of life.
According to what Sider has been advised,
large numbers of Yemenites went to Israel
soon after Israel became a nation. It was
important, she said, to their looking for
conditions favorable to the family traditions
they knew and practiced. For example,
Torah observances start very early among
people following Yemenite expectations.
ARTS&LIFE
ART
ELI SIDER
Local artist has display at
Grand Rapids ArtPrize.
‘I Am
Yemenite’
SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Details
To learn more
about ArtPrize,
which ends
Oct. 1, go to
artprize.org.
Michelle
Sider
“Yemenite Coffee”
“Literacy”
“Alaskan Airlines”