JANUARY 4 • 2024 | 5
opinion
A Light in the Darkness
O
n the last night of Chanukah,
in a world that responded to a
21st-century pogrom by top-
pling menorahs and stabbing Jews, a new
candle was lit when the first Israeli art
gallery in New York City
opened on Manhattan’s
Lower East Side. The light
was magnified by the fact
that the art world has his-
torically been quite hostile
to Israel.
Gordon Gallery, a prom-
inent contemporary art gal-
lery founded in Tel Aviv in 1966, opened
its New York City space with a group
show featuring such leading Israeli artists
as Gilad Efrat, Moshe Kupferman, Yaacov
Dorchin and Rita Alima. The new space
marks the gallery’s sixth location, with
two galleries and a sculpture garden in
Tel Aviv and two galleries in Jerusalem.
In 1977, Gordon became the first
auction house in Israel. Representing 40
Israeli artists and 10 art estates, Gordon
“aspires to deepen understanding and cel-
ebrate the cultural heritage embedded in
Israeli art,” according to the gallery. The
opening exhibition is meant to introduce
contemporary Israeli art to a wide New
York City audience — long overdue and
desperately needed. The new space was
supposed to open in November but was
pushed back for obvious reasons.
“
After the opening last week, the feeling
is truly fantastic,” founder and director
Amon Yariv told me. “We received amaz-
ing responses and a huge crowd of art
lovers, many of whom we didn’t know
before.”
Yariv also curated the opening exhibi-
tion. “For our NYC gallery, it comes at
the right time to open and a natural evo-
lution after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.”
I asked him what he hoped to accom-
plish by opening the first Israeli art gal-
lery in New York City. “We felt the new
gallery could be wonderful for the Jewish
community in the city and an important
addition to the local art scene. … For a
Jewish person, it’s the most challenging
time, but it’s also the best time to bring
people to support Israeli art and culture,
and we’ve been getting a lot of support in
that context.” Part of the exhibition’s pro-
ceeds will be donated to the victims of the
Oct. 7 attack.
Opening night was indeed magical.
The space was packed and included an
age group rarely seen in NYC galleries:
kids. Hebrew flowed through the conver-
sations, and I don’t think it was lost on
anyone that we were on the Lower East
Side, where many of our families landed
after fleeing Eastern Europe.
After more than two months of hell, we
allowed ourselves to feel joy. Throughout
the evening, a children’s song kept run-
ning through my head: “This little light of
mine; I’m gonna let it shine.”
My favorite piece was an oil on can-
vas by Moshe Kupferman (1926–2003),
“Untitled.” Kupferman moved to Israel
in 1948 and helped establish a kibbutz
in the Galilee. While living and working
in relative isolation, Kupferman devel-
oped an artistic style heavily informed
by both religious discipline and the rigor
of kibbutz life. According to the gallery:
“Through a subtle interplay of line and
color, the work reflects a tension between
what is seen and what is concealed.”
Precisely the tension that Jews have
always had to live with.
For a small, persecuted people, we create
a lot of light. Yes, we are commanded to do
so, but I also think that creativity is one of
the ways we have survived. And the truth
is, one cannot create art — or anything —
if one’s soul is full of hate. It is something
our enemies have yet to learn.
Walking out of the gallery, past the
security guard on the sidewalk, I tensed
up as I have every day since Oct. 7, not
knowing if I would be accosted by the
seemingly endless haters. But this time I
felt protected by an aura, an iron dome,
of not just light but resilience, something
our immigrant families had to develop
while walking those same streets.
“Lights will guide you home” goes the
line from Coldplay’s “Fix You.” Until they
guide us to our real home, the exquisite
light of Israeli art will be brightening New
York City day and night. The haters, espe-
cially those in the art world, are just going
to have to get used to it.
Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose
Magazine. This was originally published by Jewish
Journal.
Karen
Lehrman
Bloch
JNS.org
An exhibition of Israeli art held by Tel Aviv’s Gordon Gallery in New York City, December 2023.
COURTESY GORDON GALLERY