By Grace Schessler, WLCJ Vice President and Program Chair
We all come to Judaism from our own backgrounds and perspectives. During my term as BQLI Region President, I wrote a weekly letter for our Shabbat Greetings newsletter. To begin this process each week, I’d read the Torah parashah, along with many commentaries, while giving thoughtful consideration as to how its major themes related to my life or our ever-changing world. After three trips around the sun, I’d learned more Torah than I had in all my years of 3-day-a-week Hebrew School, and, as a bonus, I shared a great deal of personal information with my Women’s League Sisters which built a very special connection! Additionally, I discovered a level of personal introspection I didn’t know I possessed.
On Monday evening, November 7th at 7:00PM, Women’s League is honored to share a special program with our community featuring internationally renowned Israeli artist, Avner Moriah. Raised a secular Jew in the Abu Tor neighborhood of Jerusalem, Moriah served in the Yom Kippur War, sharing in a recent Jerusalem Post article that he felt, “The (Israeli) political leadership just threw us into battle and sacrificed our youth forever.” It was many years later, after Moriah had earned his Master’s of Fine Arts degree at Yale University, when he set off to New York where he channeled his feelings about the war into his artwork. His time in New York proved to be life changing as he began to engage in the city’s vibrant Jewish community and befriended synagogue patrons like Gershon Kekst, z”l, then chairman of the board of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Kekst commissioned Moriah to create panels on “The Gathering at Mount Sinai” for JTS, which he completed in 1999. This commission proved to be the impetus of the artist’s foray into illuminating Jewish texts and themes. Moriah spent many hours studying how biblical texts are interwoven into traditional Jewish rituals. As Moriah studied the texts he would visualize them in pictures. Though still decisively secular, Moriah is enthusiastically connected to his Jewish heritage and Israel.
Take a moment to reflect on what (or who) has inspired your journey through Judaism? Do you want to learn for the sake of knowledge? To feel more connected to other like-minded women? To cultivate a career path? Whatever the genesis of your journey might be, the pursuit of knowledge and the development of intellect is mightily motivating.
Register HERE to meet Avner Moriah, and to learn more about what motivates him as an artist.
To read the Jerusalem Post article about Avner Moriah click .
To familiarize yourself with his work, you can go to: Avner Moriah’s Website. All WLCJ members will enjoy a generous discount (CODE: WL2022) on all art on this website!
Shabbat Shalom,
Grace Schessler
WLCJ Vice President and Program Chair
gschessler@wlcj.org
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