Page BM-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, December 21, 1989
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ens new exhibit in Tel Aviv
By
SIMO^^GRIVER
WZiPS—
Among , the most con-
spicuous manifestations of glasnost is the growing number of Soviet Jews visiting Israel. By the High Holy days (at.the end of
POirrRATTS
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Portuguese to ancestors-
September) almost 20,000 Soviet Jews had toured Israel this year, and one of the most prominent of these visitors Was Ilya Kabakov,
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Last month was a time of^ rejoicing for a small community in Belmonte in northern Portugal. Thirty-two men were circumcised by a mohel who had come from Liisbon. .
Shlomo (Alfredo) Pereira, a 33-year-old professor of economics in California, who acts as the commuriity's representative, was not in Portugal for the big event_. He was in Jerusalem, speaking with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu and others to facilitate the-group's return to, Judaism after 500 year's.
Pereira said that about 200 people are the core of
thousands ofMarrano families in northern Portugal. They numbered 10,000 during a brief resurgence of Judaism in^ the 1930s before it was quashed by the fascist regime.
But the 200 are determined to return fully to Orthodox Judaism, the faith which their ancestors had been forced to hide froni the Inquisition.
Pereira, who came to Israel with the help of Re-uven Kashani, director of Jerusalem's Misgav Ladach Hospital arid a researcher in Jewish communities, also met with Yitzhak Meir, head of the Torah Education Depart-
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merit of the Jewish Agency, in a quest for teachef§:
The memibers of the community are relatively poor. Most are itinerant clothing pedlars. They wpuld find it quite easy to adapt to Israeli life, Pereira said. ..1 ■„
At present, the Community observes a number of Jewish customs. They are scrupulous about not working on Shabbat. Of prime importance to thern are Yom Kippur and the Fast of Esther, which some keep for three days. Indeed, they identify very closely with Queen Esther, who was also forced to hide her Jewishness.
Pesach is marked a-month late, on Pesach She-ni, the date set aside, ac-cordingto the Torah, for those who had been unable to observe the holiday at •the correct time..
Pereira's own family is from near Belmonte, but he was bom in Lisbon and went to study in the United States, where he became interested in Judaism and . underwent a formal- (^^^ version. '^I don't consider it a conversion. I consider it a return," he said.
the great' Russian conceptual ist artist.
Kabakov and his wife Vika, spent a week in Israel during September, as guests of the World Zionist Organization's Department of Information. There Ilya met with President Chaim Herzog and government leaders and opened a new exhibition entitled "The Beautiful '60s In Moscow," at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art...
Born into a Moscow Jewish family, Kabakov emerged as one of the leading avant-garde artists of the '60s in the relatively relaxed post-Stalin revisionist period under Khruschev. He was often known by his colleagues aii^ disci[des as the father of Russian con-ceptualism and his drawings hang ui the principal museums across North America and Western Europe. Since glasnost began, his views have been sought by the Western press too and in Veceht montlis major features about him have ap-peared in Timie Magazine "aijid the color supplement of the London Sunday Times.
According . to Marc Scheps, director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Kabakov's influefice has-historically been especially felt in Israel. "Thewave of-Soviet aliya ih-^the 1970s," he said, "brought many Soviet Jewish artists to Israel and the aVarit-"^arlle'idba~s of th^se newcomers had a deep influence on the local artistic scene."
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It was Mikhail Grob-man, an old friend, of Kabakov, a successful and former fellow Muscovite who immigrated to Israel in 1971, who escorted . Kabakov around Israel. '' Kabakov' s influence oh world ailistic trends is immense," Grobman said. "When one considers that American conceptualism did hot-evolve until several years after Russian coneptualism and that Kabakov was its founder, then his stature*is put into perspective."
The three drawings by Kabakov in the collection are amongst his classics. In one, a row of uniformed men raises questions about human identity. Another shows a Vespa motorcycle, while a third drawing, enigmatic even by Kabakov's standards, depkts fragmented views of houses, rooms- and a human head.
The careful compart-. mentalization displayed in this third picture reflects the scrupulous, analytical manner in which Kabakov ' himself speaks. He is a reticent, difficult and often evasive speaker who has clearly grown up in a society where outspokenness can be a dangerous attribute. Nevertheless, he has a sympathetic and intriguing •faee-and-- looks young- for his 56 years.
Afterhaying spent .sever-. al days in Israel 1 asked Kabakov about his impressions of the country. "Js-,rael is very impressive." he said, .''andJ have .seen.' some wonderful sights in Jerusalem. 1 am still taking everything in. My mind is absorbing so many deep impressions of exciting people and places." .
Cfn the subject of peres-troika and art, Kabakov spoke with greater com= mitment. "Before peres-troika there was official art and unofficial art," he observed. "I belonged to the latter category.
While official art reached the masses, unofficial.art was denied an audience. This wa^ hard for me. There was intensive intellectual exchange amongst the small circle of unofficial artsts but I need a dialogue with an audience. Now all that is changing and unofficial art is available to more and more people who are appreciating the messages it conveys."
This theme of the changes brought by glasnost was taken up by Uzi Narkis.headoftheWZO's Department of Information. "We have entered a new era in the relations between Israel and the Soviet Union,"-Narkis said: "Within this context, Kabakov's visit is of immense significance. A visiting Soviet scientist recently pointed
.out that before 1967Israel had diplomatie-^relations with the Soviet ,Union,:but-very few cultural contacts. Now it is the other way round with no diplomatic relations but many cultur-al contacts. True friendship between Israel arid the Soviet Union will be built ; upon these kinds of
, contacts."