Passover as a universal symbol of liberation with Lynne Feldman

Posted by [email protected] | Apr 22, 2016 | Cultural Life | 0 |

Provided by Lynne Feldman

Recently, I was at Lynne Feldman’s studio in the Anderson Arts Building. You’ve seen her collage homage to the public market, at the Writers and Books scavenger hunt for Rochester Reads and cloaked in her art at a kickin’ First Friday. And you may have seen Lynne’s work on the cover of A Family Among Families: The Jewish Home of Rochester Since 1920 (1998)

Cover illustration by Lynne Feldman. The book will shortly be added to the collection of the Brighton Memorial Library. [courtesy: BML]

from A collage homage to the Public Market [provided by Lynne Feldman]

Kindly offering images of her art, Lynne explains some of her thoughts on Passover:

Provided by Lynne Feldman

This year I had a showing of my Judaic paintings and serigraphs at the Kehilla Community Synagogue in Oakland, California. This is a temple that has a large LGBTQ population as well as a large population of “Jews of Color.” When I attended the opening last month, I was struck by the wonderful diversity of the congregation. I also realized that it was almost Passover and that this was a part of the metaphor of what Passover is about.

from A Kicking First Friday at the Anderson Arts Building One of Lynne’s latest projects is Wrap Yourself in Art: blankets soft, warm and distinctly beautiful. 4/1/16

Every year at the Passover Seder we read the story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, where they had been slaves for many years. We read how they crossed the Red Sea, which parted for them. We read how, led by Moses, they wandered in the desert for the next 40 years until they found the “promised Land.” We can interpret this story literally, a historic migration with some very major miracles or we can read this story as a metaphor relevant to our own contemporary times. The central theme of Passover is liberation and since Passover is also always at the beginning of spring, another theme is that of rebirth, renewal and transformation.

On this night long years ago, our ancestors hearkened to the call of freedom Tonight that call rings again, commanding us to champion the cause of the oppressed and the downtrodden summoning all the peoples around the world to arise and be free. This message is also about social, political and spiritual transformation.

Thanks, Lynn for sharing your work and enriching our understanding of the meaning of Passover.

SEE ALSO

A kicking First Friday at Anderson Arts Building

Guys, dolls and apples at the Writers and Books Scavenger Hunt for Rochester Reads

A collage homage to the Public Market with Lynne Feldman

ALSO ON ROCHESTER JEWISH HISTORY

East High’s oldest athlete, Morris Shapiro’s (1913 – 2016) love of wrestling never waned

Five years ago when Michael Raff found his perfect mark. And over 70 years of history at the B’Nai Brith bowling league

Remembering the Jewish past of Joseph Avenue

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.