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The troubling quotation from the
Talmud, Leviticus
18:22,’
Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it
is an abomination,” is
referenced and refuted in several works.
Helene Aylon highlights the phrase with the use of a magni-
fying lens, and Susan Kaplow together with Trix Rosen
created an installation.
In Israel one finds strongly secular Jews and fervent Orthodox
believers in public conflict over the issues of perceived homo-
sexuality. Graphic examples of public protest art are included
in the works of Heddy Abromowitz and Dorit Dotan. Kobi
Israel adds poignant, iconic images of Israeli military person-
nel as commentary.
Seeking additional pivots of change, we turned to the power-
ful presence of the New Yorker Magazine, namely their
magazine covers and stable of cartoonists. Their brave and
targeted covers have featured artists whose barbed line draw-
ings capture the winds of change with ironic humor.
Cartoonist William Haefeli and the graphic novelist Alison
Bechdale are included for their sophisticated insights.
Paranoia, irrationality, fear, and brutal actions by police forces
around the country fueled a smoldering powder keg of repres-
sion, which erupted on June 28, 1969, when a Greenwich
Village tavern, the Stonewall Inn, became the riot site between
the New York City Police and the LGBT community. Un-
quelled, it erupted onto the neighboring streets and was met
with harsh repression by the police. This may have been the
turning point to organize individuals of diverse opinions and
splinter groups into forceful aggregates for social change.
November 2, 1969 marked the first ‘pride parade,’ which
birthed two powerful social activist groups in support of gay
civil rights and as an annual memorial to the victims of the
riot and of the AIDS epidemic. In New York, the Gay Rights
Parade is now held in June. Joan Roth, a New York photog-
rapher and social activist has covered these parades for the
past two decades. A number of our artists were at Stonewall
and bear witness to this uprising.
Early in 1981 reports emerged from California and New York
of small numbers of gay men, diagnosed with a rare form of
cancer or pneumonia and sharing the symptom of severely
damaged immune systems. All were gay. By 1982, HIV/AIDS
cases rapidly spreading throughout the U.S. and Europe,
numbered more than 100,000 persons, including heterosex-
ual men and women who had used intravenous drugs or had
received contaminated blood transfusions. Although the
medical profession and scientific community responded to
the growing epidemic, it was not until 1987 that a signifi-
cant pattern of treatment evolved. In November 1985, a
long-time gay rights activist, Cleve Jones of San Francisco,
after participating in several candlelight memorial parades,
conceived the idea of a memorial quilt. Supervisor Harvey
Milk and Mayor George Moscone, victims of assassination as
well as hundreds of friends and family members were included
in the original memorial. In 1990, the
NAMES Project
Memorial Quilt
had spread across the country. The quilt
currently numbers over 48,000 panels and will next be
exhibited on the Mall in Washington D.C. in July 2012.
We are honored to be exhibiting two panels of the quilt,
created by John Hirsch and linking the Memorial effort to
the continued support of the Reform Movement of Judaism.
In closing, I would like to mention two works that highlight
other aspects of this undertaking. Henry Bismuth has painted
for this exhibition a powerful image of heterosexual intimacy:
Shiva and Macali
,
two gods of the Hindu pantheon, in close
embrace. Representing the universality of passion, love,
personal commitment, and enduring support, they expand
our recognition of humanity beyond our urban, American
viewpoint. The other work, a diptych by Archie Rand,
reinforces our Jewish heritage of biblical interpretation. In
the first panel a glorious warrior, Deborah, plots to go into
battle with General Barak against the Syrian army. Paralleled
in the second panel, taking her female place as an equal, she
is garbed as an Israeli Sabra warrior.
A word of personal thanks to Rabbi Jerome Davidson for his
endless support and farsighted actions, to Rabbi Nancy Wiener
for her guidance and commitment to integrate this exhibition
into students’ pastoral education, and to my deeply involved
curatorial associates, Phyllis Freedman and Nancy Mantell.