Jewish scholar examines the potency of Jewish artists in healing social ills
ARS JUDAICA
By Matthew Baigell
Yona Verwer moved to New York in 1978 from the Netherlands. The attack in New York, she felt, presented her with a personal mandate both to protect the weak and to fix or repair the world. After the attack on 9/11, she developed three ongoing series which culminated in the Temple Talismans: Protection Amulets for Synagogues series. She wants to draw, as she expressed it positive energy from them. [link]
Verwer calls these works amulets because amulets traditionally are work or place on objects for protection and to bring good luck. The amulet illustrated here, Stanton Street Synagogue Amulet I (2009) (fig. 19), is a particularly poignant example. The Star of David is copied from a window in the Stanton Street Synagogue in New York City's Lower East Side and build by immigrants from Galacia.
The animal forms are derived from similar designs that once decorated synagogues destroyed by the Germans in the region that is now a part of Poland and the Ukraine. The hamsa represents God's protective hand; the Statue of Liberty is seen through the smoke cause by the attack on the Twin Towers. The preceeding text is from "Social Concern and Tikkun Olam in Jewish American Art" by Matthew Baigell and is published in 'Ars Judaica' at the Bar-Ilan University.
By Matthew Baigell
Verwer calls these works amulets because amulets traditionally are work or place on objects for protection and to bring good luck. The amulet illustrated here, Stanton Street Synagogue Amulet I (2009) (fig. 19), is a particularly poignant example. The Star of David is copied from a window in the Stanton Street Synagogue in New York City's Lower East Side and build by immigrants from Galacia.
The animal forms are derived from similar designs that once decorated synagogues destroyed by the Germans in the region that is now a part of Poland and the Ukraine. The hamsa represents God's protective hand; the Statue of Liberty is seen through the smoke cause by the attack on the Twin Towers. The preceeding text is from "Social Concern and Tikkun Olam in Jewish American Art" by Matthew Baigell and is published in 'Ars Judaica' at the Bar-Ilan University.
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