Student Facebook
Fall 2024
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Documentary Screening & Panel Discussion
Sunday, December 1st, 2024
3:00-4:30 PM
Spiegel Auditorium
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First exclusive showing in the United States:
October 7th: The Morning After
photographs by Halina Hildebrand
The exhibit is to commemorate the first anniversary of the October 7th massacre
In my photographic exhibition, "Israel After October 7th," I strive to capture the profound impact of the traumatic events that unfolded in Israel on that day. Through my images, I seek to convey the collective resilience, suffering, and
challenges faced by Israeli society in the aftermath, while also addressing and
combatting antisemitism.
My photographs prompt contemplation on our collective responsibility to foster peaceful coexistence. Compassion and understanding are essential in bridging divides and mitigating hostilities. They serve as a call to action, inviting viewers to engage in meaningful reflection on the path toward a future defined by mutual respect and harmony."
Holy Sparks: Celebrating 50 Years of Women in the Rabbinate
Gindi Gallery
----On June 3, 1972, Jewish and American history were made when Rabbi Sally Priesand was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion as the first woman rabbi in North America. She and the others who followed set in motion the first steps toward the empowerment of new cohorts of leaders for the Jewish people over the past 50 years.
Celebrating this historic achievement is the Holy Sparks art exhibition, on view at Hillel at UCLA starting on Thursday, October 24th 2024, which was created by the Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, in partnership with The Braid (formerly Jewish Women's Theater). It illuminates the creativity, commitment, and vision of 24 women who were “firsts” in their time. Their challenges and contributions, struggles and successes represent the achievements of the nearly 1,500 women rabbis of all denominations who have transformed Jewish tradition, worship, spirituality, scholarship, education, and pastoral care.
Evoking these pioneering rabbis’ stories are the works of 24 leading contemporary Jewish women artists, who immersed themselves in their respective rabbi’s recorded interviews, produced by The Braid's Story Archive of Women Rabbis and preserved at the Jewish Women’s Archive.
Jean Bloch Rosensaft, Director of the Heller Museum, states, "From the pulpit to the college campus, from philanthropic foundations to Jewish communal organizations and agencies, from military to healthcare chaplaincy, women rabbis have indelibly redefined Jewish leadership. The art presented exemplifies the role of contemporary women artists in advancing Jewish culture through the visual expression of Jewish history, values, and identity."
Each work is further elaborated with the rabbis' biographies and QR-code links to their video interviews. The portraits are presented chronologically by year of ordination, to reveal each decade’s pioneers as inspiration for the next. A free curator’s audio tour and digital guide to the exhibition are available on the Heller Museum app on Bloomberg Connects.
Read more in the online exhibition catalogue
Maury Ornest
Outsider
Spiegel Gallery
Maury, the youngest of four children of Harry and Ruth Ornest, was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1960. Two years after his birth the family moved to Los Angeles.
He and Harry shared a love of baseball, and Harry drilled Maury and his brother Mike for hours on end on how to field, bunt, steal bases and execute a double play. As a switch hitter, Maury became a star player and was the 76th pick in the professional baseball draft. He attended college and then played minor league baseball until injuries ended his career.
At 23, Maury began working in the business office of his father, who had recently purchased the St. Louis Blues hockey team and the arena where it played. He loved working in the family business, but over time things started to change.
Over the next few years, Maury began to experience the world as a hostile place. He suffered breaks from reality, and his life changed almost overnight. His supportive family searched desperately for effective treatments.
In his mid-30s Maury began taking art classes at Otis College of Art and UCLA Extension, along with private instruction. He shared his love of creative expression with his mother, a passionate art collector. Hundreds of sketchbook pages demonstrate his fascination with and focus on the creative process. In the last two decades of his life, his output showed the depth and breadth of his understanding of art history, as well as his need to express himself creatively.
In his 50s Maury developed heart disease yet persisted bravely through physical suffering until the age of 58 when he passed away.
Despite the isolation and suffering he endured, Maury was an eternal optimist who always yearned to get back to the canvas. His optimism is evident in the joyous nature, wit and vibrant colors of his paintings. For information, contact: Laura Ornest at [email protected]
The Land of Miracles
Wendy Lamm
Wendy Sue Lamm is a two-time World Press Photo Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. Her photographs are striking by their ability to express the duality of both objective yet profound artistic statements simultaneously. Her first book, From the Land of Miracles, published in Europe and North America, is a figurative and artistic reflection on the fragile balance of the daily lives of Israelis and Palestinians in peace and in war. Within days of its release American Photo Magazine and the Scandinavian Book Fair in Gothenburg, Sweden, selected From the Land of Miracles as one of the best books of the year. Ms. Lamm’s photographs are exhibited in numerous museums and galleries worldwide, including Stockholm Stadsmuseet, Milan’s FORMA International Center of Photography, the Louvre in Paris, and Japan’s Asahi Museum; her work is published in international publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Elle, Geo, Der Spiegel, Le Espresso, Republica, Figaro. Her portraiture is highly sought after by major artists in recording and entertainment. In 2018 her food photographs were featured in the cookbook published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Flavor Bombs: The Umami Ingredients That Make Taste Explode. After earning a BA in Humanities from the University of California at Berkeley, Ms. Lamm accepted photographic assignments for the next eight years that spanned America--from the border towns of El Paso, Texas & Juarez, Mexico, to metropolitan daily newspapers & magazines in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Subsequently, she was based in Jerusalem as a foreign correspondent/war photographer for the French wire service Agence France-Presse, and then European photo agencies. As a member of the Los Angeles Times team reporting on the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, CA her photos were part of the coverage that earned the Times a Pulitzer Prize. From 1996 to 2005 she was based in Jerusalem, Paris and Stockholm. Her reportage spanned Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Acclaim for her work in those years includes World Press Photo Awards and the National Press Photographers Picture of the Year Awards.
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Investigative journalists Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer were in Ireland when they heard about the October 7th attacks in Israel. They watched footage of the brutality in shock. They thought it would be a day that changed everything. But they noticed that their neighbors, the press, and politicians were eager to "move on" and wanted to have people forget October 7. The conversation very quickly moved to condemning what Israel was planning in Gaza. There was no condemnation of the October 7 massacres. That’s when Ann and Phelim knew they had to travel to Israel to discover the truth for themselves, and as journalists, they had to bring that truth to the world. In November 2023, they traveled throughout Israel and interviewed survivors, rescuers, heroes and those who lost loved ones. They were honored that people trusted them to tell their stories. OCTOBER 7: In Their Own Words is a verbatim play - with no editorializing, no added drama - just the truth. Isn't that what journalism should be?
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Click here to read the LA Times article on the "October 7" play to make West Coast debut at UCLA on anniversary of Hamas attacks
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DISCLAIMER: The Fowler Museum is not a host of this event nor is the event part of the Fowler Museum’s programming
WINTER 2024
WINTER ART OPENING
Photograph by Peter Decherney, from his series "The Abayudaya Jewish Communities in Uganda, Africa"
The Dortort Center for Creativity in the Art at Hillel at UCLA proudly presents the Winter 2024 Art Opening and Reception
Thursday, January 25th, 2024
7:00-9:00 pm
Rivka Nehorai, "Body Illuminated: Finding Strength in the Human Spirit," Spiegel Gallery & Dortort Gallery
Peter Decherney, "The Abayudaya Jewish Communities of Uganda, Africa," Gindi Gallery
Wendy Lamm, "From the Land of Miracles," Staircase
Where: Hillel at UCLA, 574 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Free & open to the public
Exhibits run through March 22nd, 2024
Peter Decherney is a photographer, filmmaker, and historian. He is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Penn Global Documentary Institute. His work on global Jewish communities includes the Discovery+ Original documentary Dreaming of Jerusalem and his forthcoming book of photographs Endless Exodus: The Jewish Experience in Ethiopia. Peter has been an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholar, a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, and a U.S. State Department Arts Envoy to Myanmar. In 1919, Ugandan regional ruler Semei Kakungulu broke with Christianity and founded the Abayudaya Jewish community, numbering in the thousands at its height. In the 1970s, those numbers decreased to just a few hundred after Ugandan President Idi Amin banned Jewish observance. The surviving members of the Abayudaya kept their religion alive by secretly praying in a cave in the hills near the city of Mbale. Then, in the mid 1980s, rejuvenated in part by a kibbutz, Uganda’s Jewish community began to grow again. Today, an expanding number of synagogues and schools practice and teach Conservative, Orthodox, and Reform Judaism and observe both Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions. Most of the photographs in the exhibit were taken in the summer of 2023. They attempt to amplify the stories that members of the Abayudaya communities generously shared with the artist. Rich colors and deep shadows foreground the subjects’ energy, optimism, and pragmatism despite many hardships, and large prints both honor their embrace of Jewish culture and celebrate the diversity of global Judaism.
Rivka Nehorai is an abstract figurative painter. Her work grapples with change and motion, examining how we adjust and evolve from circumstance as we seek greater truth. Rivka’s disarming images - filled with scrawled lines and abstract expressionist tendencies - are infused with both painful and celebratory emotion. Originally a Midwesterner, Rivka studied painting at Rutgers University and now lives in Los Angeles. Rivka builds community as a form of her creative work. She sees intimate, communal gatherings as a revolutionary act, and has dedicated herself for the last decade to cultivating powerful communities in Brooklyn, Long Beach, and Los Angeles. Rivka’s current show, “Body, Illuminated; Finding Strength in the Human Spirit,” follows the artist through her four-year journey from the chaos of Hasidic Brooklyn to the uneasy bliss of Southern California, as she moves through a worldwide pandemic, the fog of Long Covid, and the devastating present. Throughout it all, Rivka returns continuously to the theme of the power and glory of the body, listening to how it can heal us, soaking in spiritual lessons wherever she can find them, and determined to keep dancing.
Wendy Sue Lamm is a two-time World Press Photo Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. Her photographs are striking by their ability to express the duality of both objective yet profound artistic statements simultaneously. Her first book, From the Land of Miracles, published in Europe and North America, is a figurative and artistic reflection on the fragile balance of the daily lives of Israelis and Palestinians in peace and in war. Within days of its release American Photo Magazine and the Scandinavian Book Fair in Gothenburg, Sweden, selected From the Land of Miracles as one of the best books of the year. Ms. Lamm’s photographs are exhibited in numerous museums and galleries worldwide, including Stockholm Stadsmuseet, Milan’s FORMA International Center of Photography, the Louvre in Paris, and Japan’s Asahi Museum; her work is published in international publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Elle, Geo, Der Spiegel, Le Espresso, Republica, Figaro. Her portraiture is highly sought after by major artists in recording and entertainment. In 2018 her food photographs were featured in the cookbook published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Flavor Bombs: The Umami Ingredients That Make Taste Explode. After earning a BA in Humanities from the University of California at Berkeley, Ms. Lamm accepted photographic assignments for the next eight years that spanned America--from the border towns of El Paso, Texas & Juarez, Mexico, to metropolitan daily newspapers & magazines in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Subsequently, she was based in Jerusalem as a foreign correspondent/war photographer for the French wire service Agence France-Presse, and then European photo agencies. As a member of the Los Angeles Times team reporting on the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, CA her photos were part of the coverage that earned the Times a Pulitzer Prize. From 1996 to 2005 she was based in Jerusalem, Paris and Stockholm. Her reportage spanned Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Acclaim for her work in those years includes World Press Photo Awards and the National Press Photographers Picture of the Year Awards.
"The Abayudaya Jewish Communities of Uganda, Africa" is co-sponsored by the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA and the Penn Global Documentary Institute
Nancy Goodman Lawrence, The View Through #6, acrylic and collage on canvas, 24” x 24
Diane Holland, Palimpsestic Metanoia 12: John's Door, 2022 Kodak Endura metallic print, 41 1/4 x 31 7/8 inches (ed. 1/5)
Randi Matushevitz, King of Yourself, 2015, charcoal, pastel and spray paint on paper, 53” x 33”.
Hilary Baker, Roadrunner, 2023, linocut, 11 x 15 inches
VIRGINIA KATZ, Open Spaces, Watercolor on Paper, 9” x 12”, 2017, Archival Framed under Museum Glass
SANDRA E. LAUTERBACH, Sherezade, 39"H x 26"W, Textiles
ROBERTA LEVITOW, THE WIND, egg tempera and gold leaf on gesso board, 9” x 12”, 2022
JEFF IORILLO, Tapestry, acrylic on stretched canvas. 30” x 40”
Steven Wolkoff, Search for Peace, acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches. 2024
Lynn Aldrich, Flying into LAX, 2013, Lithograph on cotton paper, colored pencil, collage fragment, text by artist.
34 x 26 inches (framed)
Laurie Yehia, SPACE OF POTENTIALITY (2017) oil paint, acrylic, graphite, switch plates, screws on wood panel H 19" x W 27"
Constance Mallinson, "Crapstraction", Oil/Can.12"X12". 2022.
Richard Bruland, Trigger. 2016, Acrylic on panel 18” x 18”
Lauren Kasmer, Cilka30, 2022, Dye sublimation photograph on Aluminum 9” x 6 1/4”
Gilah Yelin, Drumlin Series #7, Acrylic on Fabriano. Handmade Italian Paper , 30" x 22". 1993
Alain Rogier, 2013,Acrylics and charcoal 30”h x 40”
Marla Fields, Intermezzo
Yvette Gellis, “Malibu still life, warm” acrylic, 4” x 6”, acrylic on Bristol. 2023.
Dori Atlantis
Melanie Rothschild, Golden Girls, acrylic on sheet metal, 38”x21”
Rivka Nehorai, The redistribution of wealth
Wendy Lamm, Lightscape
Mark W. Strickland,The Agony of War. Ink/wC paper 24”x31”
Peter Merlin, Chaos, Linoleum cut, 8”X 11” 2024
Harriet Zeitlin, Hamsa, Graphite Rubbing
Marie Thibeault, Kite, 20”x16” oil on canvas
Ruth Weisberg, Interrupted Reading
Carol Kaufman, Missing You, Oil Paint and graphite on gesso canvas (diptych) 13 x 11 in., 2023.
Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik
Aline Mare, Waterlands, (18 x 24”), framed (19 x 25”), Unique photo-based process on metallic paper with paint, 2023
Laddie John Dill, aluminum, 5” x 8”
Claire Rogier Kosasky
Student Fine Art Contest 2024
Hillel at UCLA will be having the Student Fine Art show opening in the Spring quarter of 2024. We invite all undergraduate students to participate in the contest and share their beautiful ideas and artistic work with Hillel and the public. We want students to have the liberty to create anything possible with their imagination so submissions can be anything. *No nudity* In previous years, we received paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, even collages, and strange and exotic pieces of work, and many more so we encourage students to get creative and get motivated! We will be giving out prizes to the winning students.
"The Phylliss and Lou Mann Prize for Excellence in the Arts at UCLA Hillel"
1st prize: $1000
2nd prize: $500
Student submissions will be received at the front desk of Hillel, 574 Hilgard Ave, in care of Perla Karney,
March 8, 10 am- 4 pm.
The curator will make final selections. The exhibition opens May 23 and closes June 14, 2024.
Opening reception & Award Ceremony Thursday, May 23, 6-8 pm
The curator and juror will be present.
Curated by Cathy Weiss,
Claudia Sobral, Prize Juror
Contact Perla for additional information:
[email protected] | (310) 208-3081 Ext. 108
Generously funded by Mindy and Robert Mann & the Stratton-Petit Foundation
STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST 2024
Requirements:
- 8x10 B&W or Color Image
- Must be printed on photo paper
- Include name, email, phone on the back of each photo
Contact:
Perla Karney, Artistic Director Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts 310-203-3081
ext.108
[email protected]The Photo Contest is Generously Underwritten by The Pamela and Randol Schoenberg Foundation