05/04/2022
The statement below was written and read by Rebecca Schaefer Cypess, MBJC's Programming/Events Co-Chair, on Monday, May 2 during coLAB Arts's community vigil in response to the deplorable, racist vandalism of Highland Park’s new mural “Home is Where We Make It”, painted by a talented artist, Amrisa Niranjan.
____________________________________________
My name is Rebecca Cypess, and I am here tonight representing the Middlesex Black-Jewish Coalition. MBJC condemns unequivocally the defacing of this mural, and we condemn the use of a symbol of Judaism to send a message of hate. We stand in solidarity with the artist who created this artwork, and we embrace the messages of unity, care, respect, and welcome that her artwork represents.
I am a Jew, and I am a scholar and practitioner of the arts. I'd like to share an idea from the Jewish tradition that may help us understand the profound impact that this incident of destruction of art has had on all of us.
The Torah tells us that, when the Jewish people became refugees from their enslavement in ancient Egypt, one of the first things that they did was build a place of worship--a space to bring the divine into their lives. Among the leaders of this building effort was an artist by the name of Betzalel, who organized and coordinated all the volunteers whose hearts were filled with the desire to dedicate this space to God. Betzalel's name literally means "in the image of God," and it hearkens back to the creation story in the book of Genesis, where the Torah states that all human beings are created in the image of God. All of humanity is united in possessing this divine spark, no matter what we look like, where we come from, and how we worship. Betzalel's art was central to the creation of a place of worship in the desert. His name points to the role that art plays in helping us recognize the humanity of others--that recognizes that all people are made in the divine image.
This mural, too, is about making space in our world, our community, to recognize the humanity of others--to hear their stories, to welcome them, to embrace them. This, indeed, is the power of art: art helps us think outside ourselves; art helps us imagine ways of making the world a more just, equitable, loving place.
When an artist is harassed, we all sustain injury. When her art is defaced, we are all defaced. When a symbol of one faith is used as a weapon against others, we risk losing the ability to see the divine image in all people. And so we must renew our commitments to one another, and to the messages that this artwork represents: messages of respect, care, and welcome, messages of our shared humanity.
