Elise Bernhardt

The Fellows started their journey here 4 weeks ago.  They know how to get around the Old City.  And the “New” one.  They have made friends, earned great admiration and are receiving invitations to numerous events and gatherings.  They know where the cool bars are and where to find great hummus.

They are all working intensively on their projects and designing their salons with their Host organization partners.  Tonight Vibha, in collaboration with the Jerusalem Food Rescuers, is presenting the most extraordinary evening: Who Owns The Water on Muslala’s beautiful rooftop.  The remarkable menu only conveys part of this brilliant and deeply thoughtful process with the extraordinary culinary creations creating the map of the Jordan River. I had such a great time working with Vibha as a volunteer in the Food Rescuer’s kitchen during the “cooking/testing/tasting” session, .

Next week Sofia will present her Salon at the Ibdaa School for the Arts in Sheik Jarrah.  She has been meeting with teachers and students there and has devised a brilliant program for the young people she will be working with (during Ramadan!)  In her salon, she will talk about bringing her artistic practice to Palestinian youth.  The gathering will start with a traditional Iftar meal (where an Ibdaa student will be playing music) followed by Sofia’s presentation and a discussion with a carefully “curated” group of educators, philosophers, artists, and curators.  

In spite of all reports, it is calm here in Jerusalem.  We visited Bethlehem last weekend, led on a fantastic tour by Palestinian curator, Aline Khoury.  We experienced the long drive around the city (which is actually very close to Jerusalem) required to get to the proper checkpoint.  Aline took us to the “Walled Off” Hotel (famous for Banksy’s work)  and a very sobering tour of the separation wall.  Then, because Ramadan started a day earlier than expected, Aline packed a lunch for us which we ate at the beautiful Al Jacir House where she helps run an artist residency program. After lunch we headed to the Church of the Nativity, with a wonderful excursion to Mike’s Ceramic Shop on the way.  Father Abdel, who Claudia had met during a previous visit to the city with an olive wood carver Vibha had met while visiting the Armenian church (this is the magic of our Fellows), took us around the Church and explained the different Christian faiths who inhabit the Church.

This Saturday – supposed to be a very hot day – we will visit Tel Aviv with a stop at Chiriya, aka Ariel Sharon Park, a garbage heap transformed into an incredible recycling center/park. The master plan included major participation by the artist Mierle Ukeles.  Who we will meet while we are here.

After the whirlwind
Or
The dust is not really settled

Yesterday it snowed in Sfat. It poured in Jerusalem. It continues to be cold and windy and occasionally the brilliant desert sun pours through the clouds and everything glows in the incredible Light of Jerusalem (thank you Davidson Norris.) Someone said it is the coldest March in Jerusalem in 100 years!!! Sadly for our Fellows it has been too cold for them to enjoy their beautiful garden. Not that they’ve had much time.

I promised to try and capture the last few days of “disorientation” week. Which actually ran about 10 days when you include Purim plus an incredible tour of the Israel and Contemporary Galleries of the Israel Museum by their respective curators, Amitai Mendelson and Adina Kaiman. Each of them spoke SO eloquently about several extraordinary works of art, explaining the thinking behind the collections and the ways they are exhibited. I have a radical new understanding of Nimrod , the sculpture by Itzhak Danziger, which is the connector between the archaeological wing and the contemporary Israeli wing.

But I am ahead of myself.

We last left our heroines at Ruth Cummings’ beautiful Shabbat table (some for their first shabbat). The next day was intense. Artist and guide Raya Hallak took us to several important institutions in East Jerusalem, from the Ibdaa school, where the students spoke and performed and gave each of the Fellows beautiful bouquets (Photos on IG:), to the Palestinian Heritage Museum to the Duban Dance School in Beit Hanina. Their young director, Hana, talked about his struggles to build the company and school – based on the traditional Dabka but expanding to contemporary dance – without taking any funds from any government agency. And the difficulties of being “on the seam” – between East and West Jerusalem.

From there we went to the El Hakawati theater and then to a sumptuous lunch followed by a conversation with two Palestinian artists — filmmaker Juman Darghmeh and visual artist Benji Boyadgian (yes Armenian, lives in Bethlehem) at the Educational Bookshop. It was an exhausting day both physically and mentally but it wasn’t over. After a quick rest at home, we were off to meet Elias Khoury – an important Palestinian lawyer. Elias and his wife and daughter, Aline – an important curator of Palestinian art – welcomed us into their home in Shuafat. His address was not findable on WAZE or Google Maps – a phenomenon that apparently is not unusual in these parts of East Jerusalem – and thankfully a kind man in a nearby town led us to Elias’ house. After tea, we were treated to a lovely dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem and regaled us with tales of lawsuits and challenges (won and lost) on behalf of Palestinian homeowners. Aline, a member of our Advisory Board, also talked with us about difficult situations her peers experience. A very sobering day.

The next day we had a tour of several art spaces in West Jerusalem led by Elad Schechter, Director of CATAMON dance group and host of choreographer Claudia Lavista. Many of these small organizations are housed in old buildings that are waiting for developers to overhaul them. Notable was the beautiful old Shaarei Tzedek Hospital which is home to, among others, the Jerusalem Biennial. We met with its founder and director, Rami Ozeri, and learned about the extraordinary growth of his unusual endeavor, which focuses on Jewishly influenced art from around the world.

A delicious vegetarian lunch was had in the beautiful cafe of Hamifal (the Factory.) This collective of artists transformed another fantastic old building. And there were artists making and selling fabulous Purim costumes. The Fellows went home to prepare for the Launch Event at Feel Beit.

The launch was a huge success. The house was full, including young people from the Ibdaa School, local artists, and many arts supporters. I was especially delighted to see documentary maker Toby Perl who I have known since the FJC days (she was a recipient of a film fund grant) and Andi Arnovitz, an amazing artist and long time friend of this program. The Fellows’ presentations were quite moving and everyone fell in love with them!

Not content to rest, on Monday, we were led on a wonderful tour of Hamirpeset – the rooftop space of Muslala – the organization hosting artist Vibha Galhotra – by their director, Matan Israeli. Matan explained the complicated history of Muslala’s work in Musrara (the “No Man’s Land” neighborhood where the Fellows are living.) And we discussed Muslala’s different models for creating communities around sustainability.

Lunch at a local Ethiopian restaurant was followed by a visit to Sinsila, a kind of sister organization to Muslala in East Jerusalem, founded by architect and urban planner Tareq Nasser. Beautiful vegetables were in full bloom on their patio and honey – from the bees kept by Palestinian women trained at Sinsila – was on sale (and for the tasting – I bought quite a bit…)

Are you tired yet? They were. We had drinks at the beautiful American Colony Hotel and got to talk about so many things that have come up in the past complicated days. Which were further complicated when we went to Yad Vashem the next day. We were led by an incredible tour guide who is the daughter of survivors and an artist herself. Going through these difficult exhibitions with the thread of art connecting one wing to the next was profound. And the work in their Art Museum was astonishing in its breadth and depth. A drive through the Jerusalem Forest to a late lunch in Beit Zayit (in a room where the sun poured in from every side) made room for some transition out of that darkness.

Wednesday we had a peek into the Tower of David, which is under renovation but still has an astonishing view. Then through the Christian quarter and into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which was blessedly NOT crowded. My favorite moment was watching a sole nun sweeping the expansive floor in the center of the Church.

Andi Arnovitz then led us on a tour of the Jerusalem Print Workshop. Founder Arik Kelemnik held forth (at 80 years old), a bit on the history of the workshop including the new methodologies in printmaking devised by some of the artists working there over the last 50 plus years. He also took us through a stunning exhibit of the work of master printmaker Moshe Gershuni. I learned that Rakefet (Cyclamen) is another name for Jerusalem.

We should stop here but there really was one more incredibly interesting day. Our guide, Leah Kufield – formerly Haredi, now identifies as a Dati Leumi (Orthodox zionist,) explained, in detail, the differences between Haredi and Orthodox and Hasidism and so many other nuances of Orthodox identity. She took us through Mea Shearim where it was “erev” Shushan Purim. (Thank you Malcom Thompson for explaining that in walled cities, Purim is celebrated over 2 days.) Some children were in costume and there were odd masks for sale on the narrow streets. Like East Jerusalem, the streets were dirty, there was a lot of garbage, everything was badly maintained and the place read of poverty. The MOST surprising thing was to see the Palestinian Flag flying high in the middle of the middle of the neighborhood. Strange bedfellows.

Ok – I’m exhausted and that was a week ago. I promise to share more – thankfully this past week was about settling down a bit. Thank you YMCA for the Fellows’ free passes to the beautiful new Sports Center – they are all feeling SO much better.

It has been a whirlwind few weeks as we prepare for the arrival of our Jerusalem International Fellows. They will arrive in Jerusalem on March 8 from Brazil, India, Mexico and the U.S. We have found a beautiful house for them in Musrara, in a fascinating neighborhood on the seam between East and West Jerusalem.  

Orientation week is just about finalized, thanks to the advice of our Host Organization leaders, James Snyder and our fantastic Program Manager Elana Ben-Haim. The Fellows’ days will be packed with visits to a plentiful variety of places, representing a wide spectrum of perspectives, led by extraordinary guides. We will be posting photos and videos and writing here on the blog. Thanks to our wonderful Social Media Manager Nermeen Shweiki, we will also be on Instagram@jerusaleminternationalfellows.  Please FOLLOW US!!

In the middle of Orientation week – Sunday, March 13th at 7 pm  we will hold our Launch/Meet the Fellows event at the beautiful new cultural space FEEL BEIT in Abu Tor.  If you happen to be in Israel at that time PLEASE join us.  You can RSVP here.

Our deep thanks to the Schusterman Family Foundation for finishing funds, helping us to insure that every element of the Residency is taken care of.

Finally, thanks to all of you who have contributed SO generously to make this program a reality. We truly would not be here without you.

With warm regards and deep appreciation,
Elise 

Dear Friends,

Our Fellows are embarking on an incredible, intense, complicated, meaningful experience in Jerusalem in March 2022.  We’ve created this section for you to “travel” with them, get to see Jerusalem through their eyes, learn about their process and their encounters with Jerusalemites from diverse backgrounds.  

Please enjoy following our Fellows on their “adventures” in Jerusalem.  They will be posting from time to time as will our Host Organizations, participants and our team.

Let us know what you think!