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Helene Aylon
I Look into the Passages: Abomination,
2012
Mixed media
6”
x 4”
This leading Jewish conceptual artist calls
attention to the passage in Leviticus 20:13 that
warns: “If a man lies with a male as one lies with
a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent
thing; they shall be put to death.” Gay men have
been tortured and killed by those who take this
verse at face value. The implication of God’s
hatred for homosexuality – and homosexuals –
has wrought severe spiritual damage on many
gay Jews and Christians, as well.
Siona Benjamin
Finding Home #80
Fereshteh/Lilith
, 2006
Gouache, gold-leaf on wood panel
38”
x 24”
Courtesy of the Flomenhaft Gallery
Reflecting on her background of being Jewish in the
predominantly Hindu and Muslim India, Benjamin
stylistically incorporates Indian miniature paintings
and Jewish illuminated manuscripts. Her Lilith is a
female demon bearing an arrow and gun who wears
a
tallit
(
prayer shawl) with many
tzitzit
(
fringes),
claiming a Jewish heritage. In an attempt to reconcile
the two different creation narratives in Genesis, the
midrash claims that Adam’s first wife was not Eve,
but Lilith, “who like Adam was taken from the earth.”
