Face to Face: Being Deborah Celebrating the Women of Los Angeles and AJU

Press Release – For Immediate Release                                                                   

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February 21, 2020                                                                           

Michelle Starkman

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American Jewish University Launches New Exhibition:

Face to Face: Being Deborah Celebrating the Women of Los Angeles and AJU

Opening Reception: March 8, 3-5pm | Free and open to the public

Los Angeles, CA -  American Jewish University (AJU) and its Arts at AJU program announce the launch of Face to Face: Being Deborah, a community-focused photography exhibition, offering an up-close encounter with women and the women who inspire them. The exhibition will be on view starting March 8, 2020 at American Jewish University.

The exhibition culminates two visual projects created in Los Angeles. American Jewish University selected women from the University’s community, inviting them to take a joint portrait with a woman who inspires them. The diverse, inter-generational group of women consists of rabbis, students, educators, artists, philanthropists, mothers, daughters, friends, allies and collaborators. They participated in or graduated from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, the Graduate Center for Jewish Education, the Graduate School of Nonprofit Management, Camp Alonim, the Institute for Jewish Creativity, Miller Introduction to Judaism Program, and more. The series of portraits, captured by local artist Yael Nov, will be on display at AJU’s most visible space – the main lobby.

AJU’s academic wing will feature the historical exhibition Being Deborah, created by the City of Los Angeles as part of Jewish Heritage Month 2019. This exhibition honors the Jewish women who transformed life in L.A., from the nineteenth-century to the present. The exhibition traveled to other institutions, with AJU being the first to create a site-specific project inspired by the historical research.

“Change-makers, active participants, fierce allies – these women are making a difference each day in the world,” said Dr. Rotem Rozental, AJU’s Chief Curator and Senior Director of Arts and Culture. “We are honored to highlight their impactful work, and share it with the public in a generative way. The exhibition raises a series of questions we are interested in exploring, relating to the nature of womanhood in the Jewish community, in all its complexity, as well as the historical conditions that continue to define our lives today. I am excited to outline these varied perspectives with these two projects, offering an expansive experience for wider audiences.”

Curator: Dr. Rotem Rozental

The exhibition will be on view through April 26, 2020.

About Arts at AJU: For decades, Arts at AJU has supported artists and creatives, become a home for works of art that have been donated by prominent community members, and substantiated exhibition and performance spaces. Reflecting American Jewish University’s longstanding commitment to the exploration of cultures, ideas, and creative practice, the Arts at AJU program offers thought-provoking programs, exhibitions, and classes for a variety of audiences and trains educators and professional. To learn more, visit arts.aju.edu.

About AJU:  American Jewish University is a thriving center of resources and talent that serves the Jewish community of the twenty-first century. A portal for Jewish belonging, each year we welcome thousands to our campuses and equip them with the tools to create the ideas, build the structures, and develop the programs to advance Jewish wisdom and elevate Jewish living. For more information, please visit www.aju.edu.  

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