An Artist's Self-Portrait of an Ex-Neturei Karta Member as a Young Woman

THE TIMES OF ISREAL
By Cathryn J. Prince

Kinder,’ three of 22 paper mache heads from Sara Erenthal’s ‘Be!’ exhibit in New York. (Credit: Cathryn J. Prince)

ISRAEL---Looking at Sara Erenthal’s art is like reading her diary. It tells the story of how walking away from one life opened the door to another, and as the 33-year-old tells it, another after that. Erenthal was born in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood into the Neturei Karta community, a small ultra-Orthodox group whose teachings call for the end of the State of Israel, and modesty and subservience for women. It shuns even the briefest of encounters with the outside world, whether it’s speaking with less observant Jews or flipping through a magazine. Erenthal said. “I was a good religious kid but I followed the rules more because I was afraid of being punished if I didn’t.” [link]