In a time when Jewish identity is being challenged globally, the Jewish Museum of Australia presents Chutzpah: Spirit. Recollection. Self., a groundbreaking exhibition that boldly examines what it means to be Jewish today.
The exhibition brings together 10 artists from around the world whose work spans painting, sculpture, video and installation. With over 20 loaned and newly commissioned artworks, Chutzpah transforms the museum into a vibrant showcase that explores the intersection of identity, culture and place.
Derived from the Aramaic word “hasipa”, meaning “to be barefaced” or “insolent”, the term “chutzpah” has evolved from its negative connotations to represent courage and audacity – qualities embodied throughout the exhibition.
“It is such a Jewish show,” says exhibiting artist Stephania Windholz-Leigh, a first-generation Australian of Polish-Jewish background. “How often do you get a Jewish exhibition bringing together Australian and international artists? The works in there are so brilliant.”
Windholz-Leigh’s contribution includes three interconnected pieces centred around Jewish food traditions, including matzah ball soup, kugel and dill (the herb and the pickle). All three works celebrate the enduring cultural legacy that is often passed down through food.
“This exhibition, for me, was really important when I was thinking about chutzpah and the climate of the art scene today, or just being a Jew today in general,” Windholz-Leigh said. “I wanted to continue the discussion about Jewish food. And in this instance, I was interested in Jewish food that has a history of being medicinal, or as a remedy.”
The exhibition features diverse perspectives from artists with connections to Australia, Israel, the United States, Germany, France, Georgia and the United Kingdom. While Windholz-Leigh explores food as cultural legacy, other featured artists approach different facets of Jewish experience.
Inbal Nissim, Ori Gersht and Hedy Ritterman delve into personal memories and collective traumas. Jordy Kerwick and Elinor Sahm reclaim their Jewish roots, while Nina Sanadze and Navot Miller examine synagogues as both spiritual sanctuaries and targets of antisemitism. Joel Mesler and Allison Zuckerman offer humorous takes on Jewish iconography and language that convey hope and resilience.
Ori Gersht told The AJN that the work he is exhibiting at Chutzpah is divided into two groups – a series of photographs taken with his son Amos in Kibbut Nir Oz and Kibbutz Be’eri in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre, and Pomegranate, a film he made in 2007.
Gersht was born in Tel Aviv and moved to London to study at the University of Westminster, followed by a masters degree at the Royal College of Art. Shortly after he graduated and together with some friends, Gersht set up a studio on London and began to work and exhibit at a gallery. Since then, he has exhibited his work all around the world.
For Gersht, Chutzpah is about rebellion.
“Chutzpah is a rebellious act; operating outside of the accepted rules, doing something that is challenging convention, doing something that is bold, direct and impulsive,” Gersht said. “I think that when I was invited for the exhibition, I was thinking about that in relation to, of course, the Pomegranate film that is depicting violent in a very contemplative and beautiful way and creating a tension between destruction and creation, between something that is falling apart and a meditative moment that invite the viewer to contemplate and think into.”
Gersht explained that the photographs that make up his Chutzpah exhibition show destruction and devastation beyond belief, but also how unexpected the infiltration and massacre in Southern Israel was.
“Houses were frozen in time, burned, and everything in them left as if no one was prepared for the disaster that was about to come,” he said, describing a house that he photographed where the laundry was still in the living room, folded, waiting to be put away.
“When we got into the living room, we saw the laundry folded from the night before, toys on the flood, the fridge was open but still full, the television, bed that is undone. You got a sense of normality, a sense of life that was totally unaware about what was about to come. A sense of mundane existence, calm and peaceful. And yet, everything was burned. Some of the photographs are of burned cartons of milk, crates of eggs, dishes that were left undone. There was something very unsettling, even devastating about the experience; the fragility of life, humanity and inhumanity, a collision between two forces – force of evil and innocence.”
Guest curator Alana Kushnir has skilfully brought these voices together, creating what Windholz-Leigh describes as an exhibition with “the full breadth of the Jewish experience … the trauma and the food and the roots and the synagogues and the spiritual and everything”.
The exhibition arrives at a critical moment when Jewish communities worldwide face increased challenges.
It provides what Windholz-Leigh calls “a dual lens: a place to grapple with the darkness of the current world on the one hand and on the other, a place to embrace the enduring light that fuels our hope and faith in humanity”.
But, as Windholz-Leigh points out, the exhibition is also simply about being a Jew today.
“It’s moody, but it’s also very contemporary,” she said. “There are discussions around things that aren’t even to do necessarily with the political climate today. It’s definitely there, but there’s also stuff just about being a Jew today, or an artist who just happens to be Jewish. There’s a really great spectrum that I think is very relatable. And the show just looks really stunning.”
For Windholz-Leigh, being part of the Jewish Museum’s exhibition has been particularly meaningful during these challenging times. “Being part of the Jewish Museum at the moment has been really beautiful. It feels like a hug. It feels like a family,” she shares.
The photos that Gersht is exhibiting show what the Israeli people experienced on that fateful day, giving viewers a sense of the beauty of the kibbutzim contrasted against the horror that befell them.
“These photographs are depicting absence. The lighting in those photographs is soft yet dramatic. We only use natural light; light that was bursting through the houses from open windows. The sun was shining, and yet inside everything is burned,” he explained. “This quality gives a high contrast light caressing objects and walls, creating a painterly tactility, almost viscerality. This contrast between the beautiful and immersive lighting and the details that are presented in this photograph is, I believe, the essence of this work. It creates tension, a tragic tension, between the force of life and the horrific death, horrific violence that took over Be’eri and Nir Oz during this miserable and horrific Saturday.
“In these photographs, we mainly focus on intimate details. Details that were left. Presence, that depicted absence.”
Chutzpah invites all visitors – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – to engage in creative dialogue about identity, resilience and cultural expression. The exhibition embodies the Jewish tradition of questioning and challenging assumptions while celebrating the diversity within Jewish experience.
For more information about Chutzpah: Spirit. Recollection. Self., visit jewishmuseum.com.au.
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