'jew': How a Single Painting Helps Define Jewish Art

Afew years ago, in mid-2018, the Jewish Museum revamped its long-standing permanent exhibition Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey and mounted a new permanent exhibition, Scenes from the Collection. A series of articles in Mosaic magazine took the museum to task for its privileging of avant-garde art over Judaism as expressed in religion, culture, and collective memory. In his article "The Wreck of the Jewish Museum," journalist Menachem Wecker accused the museum of squandering its role to preserve and perpetuate religious Jewish culture: "Entirely missing from the Jewish Museum's new permanent exhibition is any recognition of the fundamental Jewish distinction between the sacred (kodesh) and the secular or prosaic (ḥol). And that is only one reason why, incredible as it may sound, Jews or others who hope to witness Jewish history, culture, and practice being treated thoughtfully and respectfully would likely benefit more from visiting the Christian-sponsored and much-maligned Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. than from traipsing through the Jewish-sponsored Jewish Museum in New York."