Jewish heroines brought to life by female artists

A feminist organisation fighting extremism and sexism in the Orthodox community has launched an art project honouring historic Jewish women.

‘SEEN: Jewish Women Illustrate Jewish Women’ is a project of Chochmat Nashim, in collaboration with current Jewish artists Miriam Anzovin, Sefira Lightstone, Micol Rubin Bayer, Yael Harris Resnick, Judy Rubin, and Diana Leonie Simon.

Using a range of artistic medium, including papercut, illustration, digital art, silk and acrylic, the initiative offers artistic takes on modern and biblical historical female Jewish figures for “your home, sukka, shul or classroom” with the women portrayed including Beruriah, Devorah, Dona Gracia Nasi, Esther, Hannah Szenes, Miriam, Nechama Leibowitz, Ruth, Yael and Yehudit,

The pieces are available as either a canvas, indoor poster or weather-proof outdoor poster suitable for a Sukka.

Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll, an American-Israeli writer whose work focuses on women’s rights in Orthodox Judaism and a co-founder of Chochmat Nashim, tells Jewish News the project is a “double win” to be able to “highlight these artists but also biblical and modern day Jewish heroines. The project aims to normalise seeing women as heroines in pictures as “a good and normal thing.”

She adds that over the years, Chochmat Nashim has been getting requests from teachers and parents asking for visual resources of women.”

“They tell us their kids’ class has pictures all over of Rabbis, but none of women. So I just said, ‘Let’s do it!” We could access not just our heroines but Jewish female artists who I really wanted to showcase and give them an outlet for their work. If the response is good, then we will definitely expand the range.”

Each piece of artwork is accompanied by details of the female artist who created it.  Click here for further information.