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Also this issue: In Bloom Rocking the Boat He Held Me Grand One More One Man of La Mancha Artsbeat |
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May 23-29, 2002
artpicks
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While creating the photographs that have become his current exhibit, Bernard Mendoza thought of an 1899 Harper's Magazine article by Mark Twain. The article pondered the Jewish people's prominence in medicine, literature, science and the arts, despite their statistically low population. "What," wondered Twain, "was the secret of [the Jewish people's] immortality?" A hundred years later, Mendoza found dozens of pockets of Orthodox Jewish communities that held the religious and cultural traditions of their ancestors at the core of their lives. After the 1948 Displaced Persons Act allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees from Eastern Europe to enter the United States, many of the immigrants (a large portion of them concentration camp survivors) abandoned their Jewish culture and made every effort to assimilate into the American lifestyle, most likely thinking it a matter of survival in a strange new world. With it, though, they lost what Mendoza's subjects did not: the right to publicly express the rich traditions of Hebrew scholarship, marriage rituals and community gatherings that characterized their culture.
The photographer found, in cities across the U.S. in the last three decades, the legacy of those who didn’t let their Jewish faith and culture die when they set foot on American soil. The people in the yeshivas and communities Mendoza documents are the actual descendents of the rabbis and community leaders of mid-20th-century Judaism in the United States. They celebrate the same milestones, successes and religious holidays in the same way their predecessors did, no matter what the obstacles. It’s up for debate whether Mendoza’s conclusion is that a heritage of strong faith and determination should be credited for what Twain called “a marvelous fight in this world in all the ages”; however, his photographs seem to make a strong case.
Opens Sun., May 26, through Oct. 6, National Museum of American Jewish History, 55 N. Fifth St., 215-923-3811, www.nmajh.org.
