Eleven artists living between Israel and the United States exhibit at the Olim Artists Lab

A group of eleven artists living and working between Israel and the United States presented portions of their work, readings and a documentary Sunday evening as part of the exhibition “Where Are You From?” 11 creative responses to life between two countries”, organized as part of the Olim Artists Lab at Neve Schechter – Center for Contemporary Jewish Culture in Tel Aviv.

The residency is called Olim Artists because of the identity of the artists, North American immigrants to Israel: some of them are long-time immigrants, others were born to American parents living in Israel, and others still recently arrived in the country.

The main theme of the evening and the artists’ works was their feeling of living between two cultures, said artistic director Yaël Biegon-Citron.

The two-month residency, supported by the Sapir Center for Jewish Education and Culture, focused on creating works that responded to their sense of both belonging and alienation, a feeling that has intensified over the past fifteen months with the war in Israel and anti-Semitism in the United States.

Rebecca Portman a produit Identities on Firea lively online magazine, a publication of original texts and images that reflect its confrontation with the Israeli, Palestinian and American flags and the way in which these national textiles played a role in the tensions of the time.

Michal Berman’s oil paintings represent his two “places”, such as the New York subway, Gordon Beach in Tel Aviv or the port of Jaffa. Berman said she was surprised by how dark her New York scenes were compared to the bright Tel Aviv images, despite the grim and sad atmosphere of the past fifteen months.

Dancer and journalist Ori Lenkinski, born in Canada, raised in the United States by her Israeli mother and Canadian father and now living in Israel, spoke poignantly about the duality of her Israeli-American identity, through the prism of the upcoming celebration of the bat mitzvah of his daughter.

Jacob Dickerman a lu Mediterranean Homesick Blues (“Mediterranean Homesickness”), about straddling two places and two cultures as a single person, while Elana Rozenfeld presented “Our Paradox is *Real,” a slightly more ripe with the same experience, highlighting the complexities of raising American-Israeli children.

The final piece was a documentary being made by Abraham Troen known as Abie, who screened selected scenes from the film about his father, Professor Ilan Troen, as he traveled to the United States to lecture on his latest book.

This trip followed October 7, 2023, when Troen’s daughter and son-in-law, Deborah and Shlomi Matias, were murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in their home on Kibbutz Holit while protecting their son, Rotem, from their bodies.

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