Helène Aylon’s Journey From Rebbetzin to Internationally Acclaimed Feminist Artist

The irreverent 82-year-old left Orthodox Borough Park long ago. But she’s still wrestling with the rituals of her past.

By Vox Tablet

Helène Aylon grew up in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in a tight-knit world of Orthodox families. From early on, she was a bit of a rebel, but that didn’t stop her from following the path prescribed for her. At 18, she married a rabbi, and they had two children. Then, when she was just 25, her husband fell ill; she was a widow by 30.

This was in 1960. The assumption then was that a woman in her position would marry her husband’s brother. Instead, Aylon became an artist. Her work, as she explains in a memoir published last year and titled Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist, engaged with the liberation movements of her time—women from patriarchy, the colonized from colonizer, the earth from nuclear devastation—until she tackled the ultimate liberation: that of God from man. Now, at 82, Aylon looks back at a remarkable career. Her work has been shown at the Whitney Museum in New York, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and throughout the world. In fact, there’s something of an Aylon revival right now; her work is on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as part of the group show called “Beyond Belief: 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art,” and she’s included in “The Seventh Day: Revisiting Shabbat,” at Hebrew Union College in New York. She’s also giving readings from her memoir this fall, at the Jewish Museum in New York and elsewhere.

This past spring, Julie Burstein visited Aylon at her loft in lower Manhattan to talk about her Orthodox upbringing, her evolution as a feminist artist, and her enduring (if sometimes fraught) relationship with her mother, who died in 1998 at the age of 100. Burstein is an independent radio producer and the author of Spark: How Creativity Works.

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Look for the Beauty in Life

109 year old Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer

 

Rare golden treasure found in Jerusalem

Two bundles containing 36 gold coins from Byzantine era, gold and silver jewelry, gold medallion with menorah uncovered during Hebrew University excavations at foot of Temple Mount

Aryeh Savir, Tazpit for YNet

During excavations at the foot of the Temple Mount, which were conducted this summer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar discovered two bundles of treasure containing 36 gold coins, gold and silver jewelry, and a gold medallion with the menorah (Temple candelabrum) symbol etched into it.

Also etched into the 10-centimeter (4-inch) medallion are a shofar (ram’s horn) and a Torah scroll.

Mazar, a third-generation archaeologist working at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, directs excavations on the City of David’s summit and at the Temple Mount’s southern wall, the Ophel area.

Calling the find "a breathtaking, once-in-a-lifetime discovery," Dr. Mazar said: "We have been making significant finds from the First Temple Period in this area, a much earlier time in Jerusalem’s history, so discovering a golden seven-branched Menorah from the seventh century CE at the foot of the Temple Mount was a complete surprise."
The discovery was unearthed just five days into Mazar’s latest phase of the Ophel excavations, and can be dated to the late Byzantine period (early seventh century CE). The gold treasure was discovered in a ruined Byzantine public structure, a mere 50 meters (164 feet) from the Temple Mount’s southern wall.

The menorah, a candelabrum with seven branches that was used in the Temple, the national symbol of the State of Israel, reflects the historical presence of Jews in the area. The position of the items as they were discovered indicates that one bundle was carefully hidden underground while the second bundle was apparently abandoned in haste and scattered across the floor.


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The Kapporot Ceremony

It is customary to perform the kaparot (symbolic "atonement") rite in preparation for Yom Kippur.

The rite consists of taking a chicken and waving it over one's head three times while reciting the appropriate text. The fowl is then slaughtered in accordance with halachic procedure and its monetary worth given to the poor, or, as is more popular today, the chicken itself is donated to a charitable cause.

We ask of G‑d that if we were destined to be the recipients of harsh decrees in the new year, may they be transferred to this chicken in the merit of this mitzvah of charity.

In most Jewish communities, kaparot is an organized event at a designated location. Live chickens are made available for purchase, ritual slaughterers are present, and the slaughtered birds are donated to a charitable organization. Speak to your rabbi to find out whether and where kaparot is being organized in your area.

The Details

The Timing

Kaparot can be done any time during the Ten Days of Repentance (i.e. between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), but the ideal time is on the day preceding Yom Kippur during the early pre-dawn hours, for a "thread of Divine kindness" prevails during those hours.

The Chicken

Several reasons have been suggested for the choice of a chicken to perform the kaparot rite: 1) In Aramaic, a rooster is known as a gever. In Hebrew, a gever is a man. Thus we take a gever to atone for a gever. 2) A chicken is a commonly found fowl and relatively inexpensive. 3) It is not a species that was eligible for offering as a sacrifice in the Holy Temple. This precludes the possibility that someone should erroneously conclude that the kaparot is a sacrifice.

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The Google Glass Goes Jewish

It seems like Jewish apps have existed as long as the smartphone. Your iPhone can teach you to bake challah, take you to the Western Wall, and even say the prayer after meals.

But now, thanks to tech startup Rusty Brick Studios, you won't even need to turn on your phone. That is, if you get a hold of the crazy new gadget Google Glass, and you download—you got it—JewGlass.

For those who've managed to lay claim on the elusive Google Glass, JewGlass can tell you the exact times for prayer, and keep reminding you, incessantly, until you get yourself to the nearest synagogue (don't worry; it will guide you) and take out your prayerbook (which it will provide).

On their website, you can see visualizations of JewGlass's use—all in the framework of a strange, clip-art-style board meeting. On one hand, we wonder whether anyone would actually use JewGlass in a meeting, let alone praying the entire service while sitting in that meeting. On the other hand, well, there are plenty of less inspiring things you could be reading at a meeting than Jewish prayers.

- Matthue Roth for Jewniverse