Havurah Community Letter: Addressing Rising Antisemitsm in the Art World
This note comes after much internal deliberation. The Havurah team wants nothing more than to celebrate Jewish art and create a thriving community of Jewish artists. We are generally not interested in speaking directly about politics, or putting out statements related to current events. We prefer to find expression through the promotion and creation of art, which always manages to speak with more force than any words we can conjure ourselves. As our literary director wrote in a recent letter published in Verklempt!, “Good art seeks doubt in the place of certainty, murkiness in the place of specificity. And that is why we turn to art time and time again - because it allows us to feel strongly without feeling exactly.”
Ultimately, though, we feel in this moment a need for specificity. And so, with trepidation and care, we composed this statement because we know that these dark times demand expressions of deep, bold Jewish pride.
Thousands of artists, curators and other members of the international arts community published an open letter just two weeks after the brutal massacre in Israel, expressing support for the Palestinian people during the ongoing conflict. The letter failed to mention the torturing, raping, and slaughtering by Hamas of 1,400 Israelis in communities near the Gaza border on October 7, or the more than 200 people that Hamas took hostage into Gaza. It was the largest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, and the art world was seemingly able to look past it as a form of ‘resistance.’
This past Thursday, our friends at Yetzirah Poets, a Jewish literary organization, released their statement on the rise of antisemitism in the literary world. We at Havurah realize that silence is not an option when it comes to the antisemitism spreading across the internet and within the art world. Our community of Jewish creatives, whether online or in-person, demand that our voices be heard.
As antisemitism continues to rise in the art world and beyond, we want to make a few things clear:
1. Israel has the right to exist.
Havurah, as a forward thinking Jewish organization, is not ashamed of believing in the right to Jewish self determination. Israel, like any other country, holds a national identity that is wide-ranging in its political and social diversity, and any request to boycott Israeli art in our community is reminiscent of age-old anti-Jewish segregation campaigns. There is no political justification to believe Israel should cease to exist. Singling out Jewish nationalism as the sole evil in the world – and in the meantime advocating for other forms of nationalism in its place – is, in fact, antisemitic. Both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to safety and national representation, and advocating for the end of a Jewish national-identity will not be tolerated in our community.
2. Havurah stands against antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination.
As an organization dedicated to the welfare of Jewish artists and artistry, we stand against all expressions of antisemitism. This includes any statements that indicate indifference to or justification for Jewish suffering. As stated above, this also includes sentiments that refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. Unfortunately these kinds of messages have become all too common over the past few weeks, particularly in the art world, where so many seem to equate solidarity with the Palestinian people – which we support – with a need to disqualify both the realness of Jewish pain and the right for a Jewish state to simply exist.
We will not tolerate any form of hatred towards Jews in Havurah. If an artist demonizes Israeli Jews, or Jews of any specific identity, we will not share their voice with our community.
As a Jewish arts organization, it is our priority, above all, to engage with the Jewish experience and to validate the feelings of so many Jewish artists in our community who have witnessed, or directly experienced, antisemitism in recent weeks. We see you and we are here for you.
At the same time, that does not preclude us from showing support for other groups who are also currently experiencing pain. Havurah stands against all forms of hatred, and, in particular, all expressions of islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment. We will not tolerate any art or artists that promote these forms of hatred. Thankfully, this has not been an issue within our community. We are immensely proud of our community's compassionate dialogue regarding the ongoing suffering in Gaza and the future possibilities of Israeli and Palestinian coexistence.
3. Havurah will continue to share Israeli art.
We will never be ashamed of our Israeli brothers and sisters. We will never lessen their voices in our community, just as we will never lessen any other Jewish voices in our community. If the representation of Israeli artists in a Jewish art collective feels threatening to you, we implore you to ask yourself why that is the case. There is no political justification for hatred towards Israeli Jews. There is no political justification that can be used to call for the unfair treatment of members of one national identity. Just as we would not tolerate artists who are harassing Palestinian artists in the name of “protesting Palestinian government policy,” the same would go for anybody harassing Israelis in the name of “protesting Israeli government policy.”
4. Havurah will continue to share art expressing a wide range of political opinions and a diverse set of ideological views.
We at Havurah acknowledge the variety of beliefs among artists in the Jewish community. We remain committed to being a space where all Jewish artists can feel comfortable to share their work, express their opinions, and find community. We will continue to showcase work that engages with the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, as always, we will never endorse a singular political view on this situation, or any other.
We remain committed to a vision of Jewish community that spans political disposition. Havurah welcomes all Jewish artists into our community. The only voices we will keep outside our walls are those that promote antisemitism, islamophobia, or any other form of prejudice.
We encourage dialogue and, in a time when everyone seems to be shouting past one another, we urge our community members to listen carefully, to think slowly, and to simply cherish one another.
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We are still grieving the atrocities of 10/7, and we will continue to share art that helps us process the trauma so many in our community are dealing with. We are praying for peace everyday — for the innocent lives, both Israeli and Palestinian, that continue to be lost in the region. May their memories be a blessing.
Havurah believes, now more than ever, in the power of art to spark light in the darkness and to uplift and unify the Jewish people. We will continue to highlight work related to the conflict and the state of Jewish existence right now.
If you have any questions or feedback, we encourage you to email us at info@havurah.art.
To brighter days ahead,
Havurah
Illustration by YONIL