November 5, 2026 – June 2027
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5 at 11 a.m.
Location: Rau Gallery, Taube Family Campus, Hebrew Union College, 13 King David Street, Jerusalem
Organized by the Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College, New York
Photographs by Ralph Gibson
Hebrew Union College is honored to participate in the Jerusalem Biennale 2026 with the presentation of Sacred Land: Photographs by Ralph Gibson. Organized under the theme of De Profundis, the Biennale will unfold across 21 venues throughout the city, presenting 42 exhibitions and featuring more than 250 participating artists.
The tale behind the exhibit itself is personal. While visiting Paris Photo in November 2018, Hebrew Union College Governor Martin Cohen asked his friend, the renowned photographer Ralph Gibson, if he had ever been to Israel. He discovered that Gibson had not but had always wanted to visit there. Cohen recalls, “Having been there many times, and knowing Ralph’s body of work, it came to me that a view of this country through Ralph’s lens would capture Israel in a unique, moving, artistic, and informative manner.” It was Cohen’s love of Israel that was the inspiration for a project that would take Gibson to Israel on his first-ever visit in 2019 – in fact three visits throughout that year — and would result in the extraordinary publication and exhibition Sacred Land.
Cohen notes, “One’s first visit to Israel erases almost all preconceived notions of what this country is about. It is not until you see in person the beauty, history, culture, diversity, and spirit of this nation – as well as its challenges – that you can begin, but only begin, to understand this unique place on earth. Ralph’s images demonstrate this exquisitely.”
Sacred Land invites us into the eye of the photographer as a first-time visitor to Israel. We see what he sees, what captures his attention. It is in the details – a particular gesture, a candid pose, a fragment, a moment – that we glimpse a deeper meaning. The essence of the images is their intimacy; we are drawn close to people, places, things, the instantaneous and the eternal. Their juxtaposition reveals the convergence of antiquity and modernity.
Gibson describes Israel as “the oldest and youngest country in the world,” a place where “ancient luminosity refracts into mythology and biblical wisdom” and the durability of its limestone foundations hardened with exposure to the air, “speak louder and stronger every thousand years or so…becoming as permanent as time itself.”
The natural beauty of the details of the landscape, nature, and millennia-old archaeological artifacts express a timeless sense of wonder and spirituality. The industrial, urban images convey the impact of human imagination, ingenuity, and necessity. While each individual image captures our attention, it is Gibson’s artful pairing of images that creates the special impact of these photographs. Etched stone encounters graffiti. The rugged desert intersects with man-made materials. A quietude amid the cacophony of modern life. Each juxtaposition sparks the viewer’s imagination in making the connections – visually, emotionally, and psychologically.
Gibson conveys the complexity and multiplicity of this sacred land – across ethnicities, faiths, and transcending the millennia. His images are captured in the moment – sometimes dramatic, sometimes reflective, always riveting. They express the universal humanity of each being, the transcendence of time, and the pulse of life.
Cohen describes, “In this relatively small nation one can witness and relive the very beginnings of world history; experience the world’s most advanced institutions in science, technology, and medicine – and everything in between. Jerusalem exists at the intersection of nearly all modern religions.”
“In Ralph Gibson’s Sacred Land, one senses that this place is holy to all, across all of the differences that rupture this part of the world. This exhibition projects hope for a peaceful future, where all can find healing, empathy, and shared understanding,” explains Jean Bloch Rosensaft, Director of the Heller Museum.
All images in this press release are copyright Ralph Gibson.
Ralph Gibson has produced over 40 monographs, and his photographs are included in 170 museum collections around the world and have appeared in hundreds of exhibitions. He has worked exclusively with the Leica for almost 60 years and has received numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (1986) and Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur.
Martin Cohen is Chairman and Co-Founder of Cohen & Steers, Inc., an investment management firm, and a member of the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College. His love of Israel was the inspiration for this project, reinforced by his friendship and shared interests in music, guitar, and photography with Ralph Gibson.
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The exhibition catalog for Sacred Land can be viewed online at huc.edu/SacredLandCatalog.
Sacred Land by Ralph Gibson
Publisher: Lustrum Press
Available on Amazon.com.
Presented by the Irma L. and Abram S. Croll Center for Jewish Learning and Culture with the generous support of Michele and Martin Cohen and George, z”l, and Mildred Weissman, z”l.
Sacred Land was curated by Jean Bloch Rosensaft, Director of the Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College in New York and has traveled to Jewish and university art museums throughout the U.S. since it premiered at the Heller Museum in March 2024. It now comes home to the land where American photographer Ralph Gibson encountered Israel as a first-time visitor in 2019 and enters into the permanent collection of the Taube Family Campus.
Organized and first presented by the Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College, New York (March 19 – July 8, 2024).
Formerly on view at the Skirball Museum Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College (October 31, 2024 – February 23, 2025), the Rollins Museum of Art, Winter Park, FL (May – August 2025), and Sherwin Miller Museum of Judaic Art, Tulsa, OK, October 7, 2025 – January 30, 2026.
On view at the Jerusalem Biennale in Israel, November 5, 2026 through June 2027.
Location: Rau Gallery, Taube Family Campus, Hebrew Union College, 13 King David Street, Jerusalem
Admission: Free, photo ID required.
Hours: Sundays through Thursdays, 9 am – 3 pm
Information: eyakobovich@huc.edu; +972 -2- 6203389
