THE MAGAZINE OF THE SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER 2021
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t h a n ni v e rsa ry
Hanukkah Festival by Mercie Ghimire
OUR MISSION The Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality. We welcome people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, foster human connections, and call upon us to help build a more just society.
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SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER BOARD OF TRUSTEES Phil de Toledo, chairman Jessie Kornberg, president and ceo Arthur H. Bilger, vice chairman and treasurer
Jay S. Wintrob, vice chairman Cindy Ruby, secretary Howard M. Bernstein Melvin Gagerman Marc H. Gamsin Jeffrey L. Glassman Emiliana Guereca-Zeidenfeld Dana Guerin Vera Guerin Uri D. Herscher, founder Mitchell Kamin Robert C. Kopple Lee Ramer Ken Ruby Peter M. Weil Susan Hirsch Wohl D. Zeke Zeidler Marvin Zeidler
Skirball Cultural Center 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049 (310) 440-4500 skirball.org
Noah’s Outdoor Explorers by Mercie Ghimire
John Ziffren
IN THIS ISSUE President’s Message
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Reflections of Light
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Inspiration and Imagination
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A Solid Foundation
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The Blessings of Memory
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Adventures in the Arroyo
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Skirball at Home
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A Resounding Chorus
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Connected in Conscience
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Restoring the Cosmos
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Editor: Elena Bonomo Contributors: Danielle Killam, Robert Kirschner, Marlene Louchheim, and Jen Maxcy Design: Vesna De3ign Printing: Colornet Press Oasis © 2022 Skirball Cultural Center Front cover: Photo by John Elder
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Ramona Trent
Like many of you who celebrated anniversaries and birthdays and milestone moments this past year, we approached this anniversary with nostalgia and longing for those crowded, noisy memories of gatherings in the past. As the public health crisis in our community worsened in the early months of 2021, we focused on the essential Jewish values that have made the Skirball a place of hope and safety all these years. welcome the stranger. You shall not oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Exod. 22:21) pursue justice. You shall not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds. (Lev. 19:16) show kindness. The world is sustained by compassionate deeds. (Pirke Avot 1:2) build community. How good and pleasant it is to dwell together. (Ps. 133:1) seek learning. Great is study, for it leads to action. (Talmud, b. Kid. 40b) honor memory. Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. (Deut. 32:7) At the Skirball, we seek to bring meaning and understanding to all people by telling the stories of these ancient Jewish values. As we imagined finally being able to welcome visitors back to our museum galleries and
Ramona Trent
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
This past year, the Skirball marked twentyfive years since opening to the public on April 21, 1996. It has been a quarter century full of wonder and welcome. More than ten million visitors have joined us here for festivals, field trips, conferences, and concerts. Groundbreaking exhibitions have changed the way museums think about audience engagement and how an institution’s values can be shared through art and storytelling.
cultural programs, we asked ourselves, “How can our oasis bring courage and comfort to those reeling from pandemic loss?” From this discussion was born the three-phase exhibition Sustain: From Loss to Renewal, which evoked both ancient Jewish mourning rituals and current pandemic stories in Los Angeles. With Sustain as its centerpiece and renewal as its focus, this anniversary issue of Oasis commemorates our twenty-five-year history and highlights how our most recent offerings continue to give life to the Skirball’s mission. Whichever page of this volume you might wish to open—I hope you will feel the overwhelming gratitude we have for all those who have made this work possible. Thank you.
Jessie Kornberg President and Chief Executive Officer Skirball Cultural Center
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REFLECTIONS OF LIGHT Robert Kirschner collects heartfelt memories from lifelong friends of Uri D. Herscher. Uri Herscher was born in 1941 in Tel Aviv, the son of Jewish refugees from the Nazi scourge in Europe. Not all of his family escaped. These were the most tragic of times for the Jewish people. Yet in the midst of darkness, Uri’s parents named him for light. The Hebrew word has the power of a verb—to be light, to give light, to shed light, to shine. Over the past eighty years, Uri has fulfilled the name his parents chose for him. Uri’s crowning achievement, the Skirball Cultural Center, has become a lighthouse of Jewish ideals for our community, our nation, and Jewish people everywhere. Here, twenty-five years after the Skirball’s opening, Senior Scholar of Jewish Studies Robert Kirschner honors the spectacular legacy of his longtime colleague and friend. Arriving in the United States as a teenager, Uri knew not one word of English. Yet, before long, he was student body president of his high school in San Jose, California. By his senior year at the University of California, Berkeley, he had co-founded a thriving summer camp for underprivileged youth. It was then that he met Robert “Bob” Haas, a classmate later to become president/CEO of Levi Strauss and one of the Skirball’s first donors. “Uri lived with me and two others in a little house on the edge of Oakland,” Bob recalls. “There weren’t enough bedrooms to go around. Uri was the only one who didn’t care. He took the screened-in porch at the back of the house. Having grown up in a basement in Tel Aviv, it didn’t faze him.” In later years, Uri shared with Bob his idea for a place of meeting in Los Angeles guided by Jewish ideals and
American democratic principles. “It was a privilege,” remembers Bob, “to watch that vision come to life.” The vision emerged during Uri’s tenure as executive vice president and dean of faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). Another lifelong friend, David Ellenson, who later became president of HUC-JIR, remembers first meeting Uri in 1971: “Everyone who knows Uri has felt his fierce intensity, his boundless charisma, his broad vision, his unswerving determination. Uri always honors the humble and honest origins from which he came. It is his deep humanity that binds him to us and us to him.” Uri’s pioneering concept was a cultural center. It would house HUC-JIR’s Skirball Museum, a collection of artifacts telling the story of the Jewish people. The
Facing page, top left: Uri Herscher shines in the Skirball’s 2016 re-creation of Roy Lichtenstein’s Bedroom at Arles, based on the series of the same name by Vincent van Gogh, featured in the exhibition Pop for the People: Roy Lichtenstein in L.A.
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center would also include venues for lectures, performing arts, and educational programs—all inspired by the consonance of ancestral Jewish values and the founding ideals of the American republic. Uri found an early champion in prominent philanthropist Jack H. Skirball, whose foundation provided the seed funding. HUC-JIR granted its approval of the center in 1981, but with the condition that Uri secure all the funds himself. With help from key supporters, Uri proved a prodigious fundraiser, garnering major contributions from Jewish and non-Jewish benefactors alike. A fifteen-acre site was acquired in the Santa Monica Mountains, and renowned architect Moshe Safdie agreed to design the campus. “We are told by biologists,” Moshe reflects, “that trees growing adjacent to each other can communicate, nourish each other, and grow in coordinated ways. Uri and I have in many ways had such parallel lives: both uprooted from Israel at a young age; both replanted on American soil; and since the 1970s, both working together to realize the Skirball Cultural Center.” It was a daunting task. Envisioning a dream is nothing like constructing a reality. Uri was called upon to
do both. “When I first met Uri,” Moshe remembers, “I recognized a unique personality, one with deep values and a clear vision. These were the ingredients that made him a formidable institution builder. He was able to take the idea of a museum, a cultural and community center, and a regional gathering place, and fuse them together. He set the objectives and goals clearly. He selected a professional team of the highest caliber. He inspired donors and trustees to embrace the mission. The Skirball’s extraordinarily rich programming, its emphasis on diversity and accessibility, and the welcome it affords to every segment of society are all part of Uri’s vision and values.” Those of us who have been privileged to work with Uri can only marvel at the prophecy of his parents: that he would live to give light, to shed light, and to shine light—that rarest kind of light, that never gives up, and never goes out.
Above: Uri Herscher and Los Angeles City Council Member Marvin Braude unveil the Skirball Center Drive street sign. ©Allan Dean Walker Photography. skirball.org
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INSPIRATION AND
IMAGINATION Skirball pioneer Marlene Louchheim honors the founding and looks forward to the future of the institution’s visionary mission.
Before the Skirball was a landmark institution along the Sepulveda Pass, it was just an idea—first of Uri Herscher and then of a growing group of supporters dedicated to celebrating Jewish culture and American democratic ideals. Each of these founders had imagination. They believed in the possibility of their dreams. Now, in honor of the Skirball’s twenty-fifth anniversary, founding trustee Marlene Louchheim shares how those dreams were realized and commits to inspiring a new generation of dreamers through innovative virtual programs celebrating the arts and technology. Above, left to right: Moshe Safdie, Michal Safdie, Uri Herscher, Marlene Louchheim, and Jeanne Kaufman at the Hebrew Union College Board of Overseers Founders Dinner and Building Committee Meeting in November of 1985.
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This story begins forty years ago when, as a member of the Hebrew Union College (HUC) Board of Overseers, I first heard Uri describe his vision of a Jewish cultural center in Los Angeles. Its focus was to be the appreciation of Jewish heritage and American democratic ideals, and the vital relationship between the two. My husband, Sandy, and I were greatly inspired by Uri’s vision, which spoke so directly to our own commitment to enhance education, art, and culture within and beyond the Los Angeles community. Uri brought together a small team to help raise funds for the project. I fondly remember Jeanne Kaufman, director of development for HUC at the time, who was a charming and unstoppable force for the cause. She and Uri were the dynamic duo! They arranged a series of small dinner parties, and one of the first was hosted by Sandy and me. It was a great success. Many of the guests that evening became the Skirball’s original founders. The next event at our home included the world-renowned violinist Isaac Stern as honored guest. I still recall Mr. Stern’s one condition: that he speak before the food and wine were served, so that his audience would be attentive. And we were! “I’m not here to play the violin tonight,” he said. “I’m here to tell you the
story of why I’m proud to be a Jew and grateful to be an American, and why there should be a cultural center that tells that story.”By the end of that memorable evening, over $1 million had been raised. It helped to purchase the land on which the Skirball now stands. As the Skirball has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, so have new possibilities for the achievement of its mission. Last year, as Uri’s twenty-five-year tenure as founding president was drawing to a close, I asked if he could think of a dream for the Skirball that had yet to be realized. He replied that as a child the study of art was never available to him in school, and he wanted the Skirball to create an art program that would reach children who might otherwise be denied this lifeenhancing experience. This idea resonated with me deeply, as Sandy and I were always committed to the arts and children’s education, and new technologies would permit the Skirball to reach many thousands of children who might never be able to visit the Skirball campus. Many fruitful discussions with Uri led to a new Skirball virtual school program called the Art of Imagination, combining Sandy’s interest in technology with mine in art. Since it launched in January of 2021, the program has opened new windows and doors of possibility to a growing audience of children—as only art and imagination can. The vision of a Jewish cultural center that so inspired me forty years ago has truly blossomed in these first twenty-five years. I am honored to be a part of the Skirball’s past—and its future.
Left: Winner of the 2021 Superintendent’s Award for Excellence in Museum Education, Noah’s Ark at the Skirball: The Art of Imagination is a free series of virtual programs and digital resources inspired by flood stories from around the world. Since it launched, the Art of Imagination has encouraged more than 113,000 schoolchildren to see themselves as changemakers, artists, and leaders. Photo by WolfDog Creative.
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A SOLID
FOUNDATION The Skirball’s architect, Moshe Safdie, reflects on conceiving and creating a “belonging building.”
BeBe Jacobs
In honor of the Skirball’s twenty-fifth anniversary, President and CEO Jessie Kornberg met with Moshe Safdie— the world-renowned architect who designed all four construction phases of the Skirball’s fifteen-acre campus—to unearth stories of how the institution came to be a place of welcome. Looking back to the Skirball’s origins, Safdie recalled moments of inspiration and appreciation for the ways in which founder Uri Herscher’s ambitious dreams have been realized. Excerpts of their illuminating conversation are presented here. 12
JESSIE KORNBERG It’s meaningful that you are honored on the wall at the entrance to the Founders Courtyard. It’s a reflection of the extent to which Uri, in particular, and all of us feel your guiding influence. When you think of the Skirball, what’s your earliest memory? MOSHE SAFDIE I remember coming to Hebrew Union College at the University of Southern California to meet with Uri, whom I’d met in Jerusalem. There was a little Skirball Museum in the basement. And Uri said, “We’re thinking of building a museum. We have a site. But the board wants a California architect.” I suggested one and told Uri I’d keep an eye on the project as a consultant. But there were tensions with whom they chose. At some point, Uri said to me, “Why don’t you take over?” I refused because the architect was an old friend. But time went by, and the project wasn’t progressing. I spoke to the architect, and he generously encouraged me to take over. JK Two things about the Skirball echo in this story. The first is something Uri always says: “Relationships, relationships, relationships.” It’s what we’re built on. The second, also impressed upon me by Uri, is that you’re unlikely to get something important right on the first try, and that experimentation and recalibration are okay. The campus itself seems to evolve over the four phases of its construction. What were the things that you learned that you were able to incorporate as you embarked on the new phases? MS I was able to understand how the building was being used. Also, in terms of the design, it became fun to do variations on a theme, like a composer who has a series of movements. And I think the richness of the architecture has a lot to do with the sequences in which we built it. There’s a progression. The rooms are so different, and each courtyard has its own very particular personality. I think the Skirball is the most musical of my buildings. JK When we think of variations on themes at the Skirball, of course, the strongest themes are Jewish. The most literal Jewish story in the design, I think, is how our entrance evokes a sukkah. Do you have places on the campus where you see Jewish themes come through particularly well?
MS The idea that the entrance is a sukkah is right on. My hope was that you wouldn’t quite be sure whether you’re inside or outside. The key to the experience of the Skirball is that you’re inside even when you’re outside, and you’re outside even when you’re within the building. You’re always conscious of the gardens and the landscape. And then when you’re in the courtyards, you are still in the Skirball—the institution’s activities are going on around you. It’s Jewish in a subtle way. JK It’s a desert climate, and we’re a desert people. It’s architecture that reflects the place in which it is sited. Our core exhibition, Visions and Values, talks about Jewish culture through the diaspora. In a healthy, liberal society, they become intertwined and inextricable from one another. We are always American, we are always Jewish, and you cannot take the two apart. We are always in, and we are always out. MS In terms of this being a Jewish institution in America, I’d go further and say it’s a Jewish institution in America in the state of California. The building is quintessentially Californian. And in that sense, it’s very much a belonging building. JK One thing that is so wonderful is that you come back and visit regularly. Do you have a particular memory here that stands out to you? MS There are many moments. I remember the extraordinary resolutions to crises that showed our resilience. I also think of first seeing kids walk into Noah’s Ark when it opened. And the first time I saw Ned Kahn’s rainbow sculpture creating a real rainbow. And the kids seeing it too. That was a wonderful moment. I recall a great, festive dinner in Ahmanson Hall when I suddenly realized that the Skirball was an established institution, not a startup anymore. Finally, I think about when we opened Herscher Hall and revealed the sunken garden. It was a big triumph to see it growing beautifully. JK From the first night to this morning, it is breathtaking. MS To me, the big miracle of the Skirball has been the programming that has evolved over the years. The life in this place is the pleasure and surprise. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.
Facing page, top and bottom: Photographed here in 1985, Uri Herscher, Jack Skirball, and Moshe Safdie stand on the site where the Skirball Cultural Center would be built. In 2013, Safdie attended the opening of the exhibition Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie, which surveyed his celebrated works around the world including the Skirball. skirball.org
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Lindsey Best
THE BLESSINGS OF
MEMORY
A three-phase exhibition inspired by Jewish mourning rituals offered opportunities to heal. A collection of stones quietly accumulated in an outdoor display overlooking the North Arroyo on the Skirball campus. Initially set in neat piles, the stones soon began to overspill the windowsills on which they rested. Next to these formations, a placard indicated that each stone, placed by both Skirball visitors and employees, represented a life or experience lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though a poignant and sobering reminder of the tremendous pain our community and the world has endured over the past two years, the stone installation also conveyed a sense of strength, reaffirming the healing power of the collective spirit. Above: Participating in Phase II of Sustain, a couple placed visitation stones in memory of the losses they’ve experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing page: At the conclusion of Sustain, the visitation stones will be permanently placed in the Skirball’s North Arroyo.
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In the spring of 2021, the Skirball launched the three-
away. The stones that have been placed by our guests
voice to meaningful expressions of grief and resilience
in the spirit of sustaining and renewing memory.
phase installation Sustain: From Loss to Renewal to give
and rebuild community following a prolonged period
will become a permanent part of the Skirball campus The focus of the third phase of the project, on
of being apart. “It was important that the Skirball offer
view from September 2021 through March 2022, was
aged to reflect on our shared experience, a way to
by local creatives whose work focused on hope and
a space where our visitors felt welcome and encourprocess the trauma and uncertainty of the moment,” stated curator Danielle Killam. The first two phases of the project recalled Jewish traditions of mourning to honor those lives lost during the pandemic. The third phase turned to the arts to inspire hope.
For Phase I, from May to August 2021, the Skirball
placed a yahrzeit (memorial) candle in the lobby, which had reopened to visitors for
hopeful reflection. Answering a call for submissions renewal, Los Angeles–based artist Stephanie Mercado
created a print series highlighting the power of com-
munity. The commissioned work celebrates seven Angelenos—a caregiver, an educator, a physician, a
medical worker, a fire captain, a grocery store employee, and a food service worker—who have demonstrated
strength and perseverance in the face of the COVID-19 crisis and the inequities it has
the first time in over a year.
heightened. Inspired by in-
The Jewish practice of lighting
terviews with each subject,
a candle on the anniversary
Mercado’s work contains visual
of a loved one’s passing likely
references to their lived experi-
originates from a verse in the
ences. In addition to including
book of Proverbs 20:27: “The
imagery that depicts the labor
human soul is the light of
of each subject, Mercado sur-
God.” Accordingly, the can-
rounded each portrait with flo-
dlelight represents the soul,
ral elements in recognition of
which exists eternally. Upon
were invited to engage in a
moment of somber reflection. Although the pandemic has
to the cycles of nature. This
Mercie Ghimire
arriving at the Skirball, visitors
humanity’s deep connection
theme of interconnectedness
was also demonstrated in the artist’s process, as she took
taken the lives of tens of thousands of Angelenos
time to connect and listen to each individual, build-
fered comfort: the memories of those we have lost
between us. Exhibited along the Ahmanson Breezeway,
and millions more worldwide, the flickering light ofstill shine bright.
Phase II of Sustain, installed between July 2021
and March 2022, encouraged visitors to participate in active reflection and take part in creating a communal
space to grieve. As gestures of memorial for someone or something they had lost since early 2020, visitors
ing community by illuminating the commonalities Mercado’s artwork greeted guests and staff alike as
they returned to the Skirball. Displaying the portraits
outside, instead of within a traditional gallery space, gave the work an element of accessibility and, therefore, built a greater sense of community.
By Phase III, the Skirball had utilized new spaces
added stones, called visitation stones in Jewish tradi-
on campus, activated visitors, increased virtual acces-
This Jewish custom is thought to have originated with
for the passing of time in order to create a meaningful
tion, to a mobile installation on the Skirball campus. the ancient practice of marking a grave with a pile of stones to protect the burial site and remember its
location, a precursor to tombstones. Over time, this
practice has evolved into leaving a small stone as a sign
of respect for the memory of someone who has passed
sibility to the project, and most importantly, allowed
response to an ongoing crisis. In the spring of 2022, a bench and outdoor signage will be installed to commemorate the project, reminding each of us of our
shared experience, communal strength, and the beauty of Jewish traditions.
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Stephanie Mercado, Jannette, Domestic Worker & Child Care Provider, 2021. Relief print collage, digital composite, 57 x 29¾"
Stephanie Mercado, Bruce Barack MD (1941–2020), Radiologist and Professor of Medicine, UCLA & USC, 2021. Relief print collage, digital composite, 57 x 29¾"
“Jannette is a loving, hard-working, and devoted caretaker and domestic worker. … During the pandemic, Jannette has continued to support families in need of help and to use public transport despite changes in bus routes and schedules, and risk of exposure.”
“Bruce Barack spent most of his career as a radiologist and professor. ... He was passionate about helping people, learning about art, and raising orchids, and he expressed kindness, generosity, and compassion to everyone he met. … He passed away from COVID-19 complications on December 31, 2020.”
The quotes featured here are excerpts from artist Stephanie Mercado’s descriptions of the seven individuals depicted in her portraits featured in Phase III of Sustain. Scan the QR code
at left to read their full stories.
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Stephanie Mercado, Family Medicine Physician with Child and East Los Angeles Medical Team, 2021. Relief print collage, digital composite, 57 x 29¾"
Stephanie Mercado, Riaz Ali, Fire Captain and Paramedic, 2021. Relief print collage, digital composite, 57 x 29¾"
“The family medicine physician pictured here (who chose not to include her name) … is the mother of a toddler and was carrying her child while seeing patients in a medical clinic. … [S]he and the nurses pictured have selflessly served the communities of East Los Angeles, where—as it has in low-income communities globally—the pandemic has heightened prior inequities.”
“Riaz Ali, fire captain and paramedic, swore an oath together with his fellow firefighters ‘to protect those who are in danger, those in times of need, and those who they would serve.’ … Riaz and the paramedic and fire team not only have been first responders, helping people who need urgent medical care and transport to hospitals, but also have been fighting wildfires during the pandemic.”
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Two puppets take a break from their usual duties to share their discoveries off Noah’s Ark. Last April, when the inside of Noah’s Ark was still closed to visitors, an intrepid group of handcrafted puppets—designed by artist Chris Green and accompanied by the Skirball’s ensemble of highly skilled puppeteers—ventured outside to welcome families back to campus for a new experience called Noah’s Outdoor Explorers. Kitsune, the Japanese red fox, and Ostrich recently met in the South Arroyo to recall their adventures off the Ark. [Ostrich twists and twirls her neck down to Kitsune’s level.] OSTRICH Oh, hello down there! KITSUNE Hello, Ostrich! [Kitsune plops in the grass, four legs splayed outwards.] O It’s so serene in the South Arroyo. I was always running around or had my head in a hole before the pandemic. I never took time to appreciate this grassy area before. K Agreed! Like most people, after spending over a year safe but alone at home aboard the Ark, I love being outdoors, playing hide-and-seek with old friends again, and meeting new ones. [Kitsune pushes a strawberry with his nose.] O Did you sneak a strawberry off the Ark?! You’ve always been sly like that, Kitsune. K No, no! I know that’s not allowed. But the little ones do love to feed me. You know, they also like using their magnifying glasses from their explorer kits to find small surprises in the planter boxes. When they find hidden treasures, like a baby praying mantis or a small fruit, they often share their findings with me. It’s nice we don’t just talk about exploring, but also about sharing. I was saving this strawberry for later to share with someone new! O Well, I’m glad you haven’t lost your sense of taste! Speaking of the senses, what are some of your fondest sense memories from Noah’s Outdoor Explorers?
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K As you know, being an animal in the wild, one must consistently be present and mindful. I remember running with visiting friends through the Rainbow Mist Arbor, feeling cool drops on my tail. I sniffed all sorts of plants visitors brought to my nose in the Breezeway. More than anything, I cherished hearing children giggle while I performed in “Fabio the Fox and the Tree of Life.” O A favorite memory of mine, too! K Why, thank you! [Ostrich shakes her feathers; Kitsune bows his head.] O That South American flood story is so inspiring—it almost makes me feel like I could fly! K Did you notice all the beautiful gifts that children left for us in the Arroyo? O I did! Our visitors have such great ideas about how to care for the Earth. The notes they left us and the pictures they drew were impressive. Clearly, your flood story really has had an impact on them! What’s next for you, Kitsune? K First, I’d better bring this strawberry back aboard the Ark. Then, you and I have more families to meet. O Together, we can make a difference! And eat lots of strawberries.
THE ARROYO
ADVENTURES IN
Mercie Ghimire
Above: Kitsune basks in the sun while chatting with Ostrich in the Skirball’s South Arroyo. Throughout the spring and into the summer, visitors of all ages enjoyed the Skirball’s many open-air spaces, celebrated the natural world, and discovered connections between the past and present. Facing page: Ostrich by Steve Cohn. skirball.org
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Experiences forged bonds beyond our campus.
SKIRBALL
AT HOME During these difficult days of the ongoing pandemic, many of us are spending more time at home. In Jewish life, home is the most sacred of places, known in
Hebrew as miqdash me’at, the small sanctuary. Here our most cherished ideals and observances find expression and celebration.
What makes a home Jewish? A mezuzah on the
doorpost? Sabbath candles on the table? A menorah on Hanukkah? A Seder on Passover? For some of us, all
of these; but for all of us, home is the people who live in it, and the values they bring to it. Home is how we care for each other and our neighbors. A Jewish home has a Jewish heart.
Throughout the past year, the Skirball’s at-home
and online offerings have sought to connect with our
community in just this spirit—from our home to yours. We aspire to be your home away from home, the place
where you are always welcome, where no one is a stranger.
Right: Skirball Stages—an online storytelling and music series that paired acts from around the world with talent from the Los Angeles music scene—wrapped in the spring of 2021. The February concert showcased American roots music from locals Joachim Cooder and Ry Cooder on stage in the Taper Courtyard and Amythyst Kiah performing in East Tennessee. The series finale in May featured Caribbean beats by Yosmel Montejo (pictured) in the Skirball’s Ahmanson Hall and Vox Sambou in Montreal. Photo by Larry Sandez.
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Above: Vice President and Museum Director Sheri Bernstein presented highlights of the Skirball’s hanukkiah collection to The Forward’s National Editor Rob Eshman during the online program Hanukkah Happy Hour. Video still by More Media.
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Above: Based on the book by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the online exhibition Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope took an unflinching look at crises hiding in plain sight. Here, Daniel McDowell plays basketball at a park. He is committed to getting sober for the sake of his young son, but he worries his felony drug conviction will limit his job prospects. © Photo by Lynsey Addario.
digital connections in 2021 Right: The documentary They Ain’t Ready for Me follows rabbinical student and community leader Tamar Manasseh (pictured), who spent every summer day sitting on the corner in her neighborhood to dedicate it for safe play. The Skirball presented the online screening—one of 143 online offerings in 2021—with a virtual talk between Manasseh and director Brad Rothschild, who discussed how to bring joy and safety to a community. Film still courtesy of Red Shield Pictures and 3 Generations.
Above: In June, food writer and historian Michael Twitty (left) interviewed Jake Cohen (right), author of the new cookbook Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch. In the lively virtual conversation, Cohen shared the stories behind his innovative and mouthwatering recipes.
Above: Minneapolis-based Ananya Dance Theatre created the film Dastak: I Wish You Me, directed by Darren Johnson, to comment on global injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the uprisings that followed. The Skirball’s virtual presentation included a conversation between choreographer Ananya Chatterjea and collaborators Sharon Bridgforth and Spirit McIntyre.
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Above: In a gesture of gratitude for essential workers upon the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Skirball’s friends at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary organized a delivery of fifty three-course Skirball Suppers to emergency room workers at Cedars-Sinai. Each meal also included conversation starters inspired by Jewish history. Photo courtesy of Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary.
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A RESOUNDINGI
Lindsey Best
“Skirball!” a group of employees shouts. Even through masks, the cheer is triumphant. It is August 2021, and for the first time in eighteen months, they are about to host a program in person: the return of Sunset Concerts. Much has changed since they last prepared for these performances. Sorrow, insecurity, and isolation have characterized the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems especially fitting that this beloved summer series—envisioned to bring the community together through the unifying power of music—would be the means of reunification.
I CHORUS Angelenos convened again at the Skirball for music under the stars. The Skirball’s first concert series in 1997 filled a longing to be together. The institution had only been open a year, and already nearly 300,000 people had visited its idyllic hillside setting. Clearly, many were in want of a place of meeting. Hoping to expand their offerings for these eager attendees, the team launched monthly concerts inside its restaurant, Zeidler’s Café. They quickly learned that the intimate café was insufficient to meet the demand. The next summer, the Skirball’s central courtyard hosted the free concert series on Thursday nights. Soon dubbed Sunset Concerts, the series has since showcased an eclectic mix of global superstars and local legends on its stage—from Bassekou Kouyate and Hugh Masekela to Goapele and The Marías—all underscoring music’s ability to foster human connection. “For the 2021 Sunset Concerts—after a year and a half during which none of our local performance venues were operating and none of our local artists could perform live—we wanted to write a love letter to our Los Angeles community,” said Director of Programs Jen Maxcy.“So we featured local bands who typify the music of a specific culture or community here in Los Angeles, and we invited each band to incorporate community organizations into the event.” “I never come west of the 405 … except for when I go to the Skirball,” confessed Martha Gonzalez, the lead singer of the Chicano rock band Quetzal, at the first concert. Even across town from their roots in Boyle Heights, Quetzal were undeniably at home on the Sunset Concerts stage. As they performed songs that advocated for workers’ and immigrants’ rights, they stood in front
of a stunning ofrenda fashioned from vibrant orange marigolds by the famed octogenarian altarista Ofelia Esparza and her family. (Meaning “offering” in Spanish, an ofrenda is a traditional Mexican altar created to honor those who have passed away.) Quetzal also shined their spotlight on the Boyle Heights–based economic justice organization Community Power Collective, whose members stepped up to the microphone between songs to share stories of their experiences during the pandemic. Among the many powerful testimonies was that of a street vendor who spoke about being harassed. The connection between current immigrant merchants to those Jewish residents of the same neighborhood a century earlier was inescapable. Together, the songs and stories captivated an audience of new and longtime Quetzal fans eager to fight against injustice. The weeks that followed featured diverse musical sounds from indie rockers Run River North, the skareggae group The Delirians, and the Afrobeat collective Extra Ancestral. Community organizers and mutual aid providers Character Media, No Us Without You LA, and Project KnuckleHead joined in these gatherings. All the while, a refrain of appreciation echoed among the audience. “We are so grateful to be here,” remarked a longtime Sunset Concerts fan, standing next to his wife. As he surveyed the crowd swaying to the music, his eyes began to fill with tears. A family of four shared that they were relieved to feel both safe and inspired. Another concertgoer reflected, “I almost didn’t know how much I needed this.” To which Maxcy, speaking on behalf of her fellow Skirball employees, replied, “We needed it, too.”
Facing page: Kicking off the 2021 season of Sunset Concerts, Quetzal performed an inspiring set of Chicano rock songs in front of a beautiful ofrenda, created by the celebrated altarista Ofelia Esparza and her family, which paid tribute to those lost to the pandemic. skirball.org
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CONNECTED IN
CONSCIENCE
Artist Ai Weiwei’s installation assembled from LEGO® bricks illuminated our shared humanity.
Robert Robert Wedemeyer Wedemeyer
The Skirball reopened its doors in May of 2021 to a culture of perspectives drastically altered by the events of the past year. In addition to experiencing the devastations of the pandemic, our nation and the world witnessed numerous instances of police brutality toward Black people, a staggering rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, and a disturbing surge in anti-Semitism. In response to these atrocities, a groundswell of social justice advocates found their voice. Demanding respect for human dignity became a global movement. In the midst of this historic moment, the exhibition Ai Weiwei: Trace opened at the Skirball, underscoring how resistance is integral to upholding the American ideals of freedom and equality.
Robert Wedemeyer
Right: Organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, the Skirball’s presentation of Ai Weiwei: Trace included a mobile guide, narrated by Skirball employees, that shared the stories of the individuals depicted in Ai’s portraits. Scan the QR code below to hear their heroic acts recounted!
Featuring eighty-three LEGO® brick portraits of political prisoners, Ai Weiwei: Trace originated during Ai’s own experience of incarceration. In 2011, the Chinese government kept the Beijing-born artist—whose father, a poet, was exiled to remote northwest China—under house arrest for eighty-one days and prohibited Ai from traveling abroad until 2015. His son’s interest in LEGO®, the universally popular and easily accessible children’s building blocks, inspired the medium with which he represented his fellow activists, prisoners of conscience, and advocates of free speech. Each portrait is handmade from thousands of LEGO® bricks. Ai ultimately created 176 portraits, displayed in six floor panels, which were first presented in 2014 as part of @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. Three of those panels were on view at the Skirball. Alongside widely celebrated figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, Ai featured lesserknown activists, whom he has described as “heroes of our time,” who likewise fought injustice in their communities. Portrayed in LEGO® of gold, brown, and shades of gray, newspaper editor Agnes Uwimana Nkusi of Rwanda was arrested in 2010 after criticizing government policies and alleging corruption in the upcoming election. Depicted in red and shades of gray LEGO®, former CIA officer and counterterrorism official John Kiriakou of the United States was imprisoned for thirty months after he publicly discussed the suffocation technique known as waterboarding. Nguyen Doan Quoc Hung of Vietnam, illustrated in green, orange, light blue, and gray LEGO®, was sentenced to nine years in prison after supporting workers striking in a shoe factory.
“After seeing protestors and activists from around the world, it was a jolt to see Chelsea Manning and [Edward] Snowden. It challenged my reactions to their acts of conscience,” said one Skirball visitor. Ai complemented these portraits with an adaptation of his wallpaper installation entitled The Plain Version of the Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca. Within the stunning wallpaper pattern, Ai incorporated an array of iconography critiquing authoritarianism, including alpacas (a symbol of freedom of expression in Chinese internet culture), surveillance cameras, handcuffs, and Twitter bird logos. “This is a very important work for me to directly reflect on humanity, human rights, and the freedom of speech,” Ai stated in the virtual tour of the exhibition. “As we know, in today’s world, those issues are still very crucial issues. And that we have to protect human rights and the freedom of speech. And this is the foundation for civilized society.” Skirball curator Yael Lipschutz interviewed Ai in an online public program previewing the exhibition’s opening. Their discussion of the interconnectedness of global crises and the ways art can advance social justice attracted nearly 6,000 viewers. From May to August 2021, Ai Weiwei: Trace offered a space for Skirball visitors to make those connections across national borders and cultural distinctions and foregrounded the potential within each of us to stand up for a more just world. Facing page: Skirball visitors viewed Ai Weiwei’s singular artistic vision in the expansive installation. Ai’s eclectic body of work comprises sculpture, photography, film, painting, and architecture. skirball.org
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Kim Kandel
RESTORING THE The Skirball mission echoes across a long and prosperous science fiction franchise. The 1960s television show Star Trek represented a utopian vision of the future. In each episode, the diverse humans and interplanetary beings worked together to pursue justice as they explored space, the final frontier. Over the past fifty-five years, the series has spawned countless spin-offs and films, along with a devoted multigenerational fan base. Organized by the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington, the exhibition Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds celebrated the enduring appeal of this idealistic fantasy. On view at the Skirball, it also shed light on how Jewish values are embedded within its bold themes, as new and noteworthy Skirball visitors articulate here. 28
“[The Vulcan salute] is derived from part of a Hebrew blessing that Leonard Nimoy … brought to the role [of Spock]. The prominently displayed photo of that gesture linking Judaism to Star Trek culture helps account for what might seem to be a highly illogical bit of programming: the decision by the Skirball, a Jewish cultural center known mostly for its explorations of Jewish life and history, to bring in an exhibition devoted to one of television’s most celebrated sci-fi shows.”—Adam Nagourney, New York Times
“At first blush, a Jewish museum mounting a ‘Star Trek’ exhibit might seem random. … But the Jewish themes and values—not to mention creatives and cast—in this expansive universe of TV shows and films have been a rich field of study for the 55 years since the original series premiered.”—Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times “I think the secret to the longevity of Star Trek is that we continue to inspire the human race to live up to its potential.”—Wilson Cruz (“Dr. Hugh Culber” in Star Trek: Discovery)
“As someone on the spectrum, I really relate to Data. This episode [‘The Measure of a Man’ from Star Trek: The Next Generation] really calls out to me because, growing up, both classmates, teachers, and even coworkers at times treated me as less than human. And this episode really speaks out to me because it helps me stand up.”—Attendee of the Skirball’s The Best of Trek marathon screening in November
Above: Whether in costume or simply in their element, visitors loved sharing their experiences within the exhibition on Instagram. Facing page: Visitors of all ages enjoyed the set pieces, costumes, props, storyboards, scripts, and interactives on view in Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds. Organized by the Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, WA. ™ and © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. © 2022 Paramount Pictures Corp. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. skirball.org
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