There’s a midrash associated with the Yom Kippur service called Eleh Ezkerah, or the martyrology, which Rabbi Joel Alter describes as “praying over these really searing tellings… of the murder by the ancient Romans of ten great rabbis of the founding generation of Judaism.”
“Theologically, the idea is that we recall our martyrs, of whom, of course, there are many across the millennia, and we ask God to consider their merit, to consider their sacrifice, in looking at us, and assessing us.”
Rabbi Alter, of conservative synagogue Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, realized that following the events of Oct. 7, “we have a new chapter to add to the catalog of martyrs.” Beyond that, the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks falls just days before Yom Kippur.
“We wanted to highlight their deaths in this portion of our Yom Kippur service this year,” Alter said, adding that both he and Hazzan Jeremy Stein will “each do something unique to draw on… those terrible events.”
But the commemoration will go beyond the Yom Kippur service. Alter has designed a “two-part community program, to reflect on the losses of the last year, through the lens of the martyrology, and to invite the entire community into that process.”
The program features works from a noted Israeli artist, as well as the creative work of synagogue members.
The first part, running from late September through Yom Kippur on Oct. 12, will be anchored by 21 paintings from the Israeli cartoonist and illustrator Zeev Engelmayer, who sometimes works under the name Shoshke. CBINT has purchased the rights to the paintings, which will be reproduced and mounted at the synagogue.
Engelmayer, since Oct. 7, has produced new work (known as “postcards”) daily about the hostages as well as other aspects of the current moment in Israel. Tablet magazine described his pre-Oct. 7 work as “funny, irreverent, cheeky, rude, sacrilegious, offensive, nonsensical, absurdist, pornographic, crazy, repulsive, gross, vulgar, wild, and fun. But since then, the artist has changed his focus, to what the same article called “some of the defining artistic responses to this latest war between Israel and Hamas thus far, [which] emerged through an organic process of mournful experimentation.”
“I know that a lot of his work is … kind of provocative performance art,” Alter said. “Some will love that, some will probably be challenged by some of his positions, but all of that is irrelevant to what he’s doing here…”
“He has found a way to capture the heart and express the heart of the people of the state of Israel. He’s chosen a style that seems naive; they seem childlike, but there’s nothing simple about what he’s saying with his art. It’s incredibly poignant, it’s very, very personal, it is so full of heart. He expresses grief, solidarity, pain, but also hope and a kind of overflowing gratitude for the members of success when the hostages have come home.”
Engelmayer told the Chronicle that he wants to make the abductees “exist in our minds, as much as possible so that they are not forgotten.”
“The postcards I draw are displayed in many countries around the world, in galleries, museums and public spaces, and I am happy to know that they will be displayed in Milwaukee. I think that in the movie ‘Wayne’s World,’ Wayne and Garrett talk with Alice Cooper about the origin of the name Milwaukee, and one of the possibilities is from a native word, that means a gathering place. For us, in Israel, there is no real gathering without our hostages, held for so many days in Gaza. We want our kidnapped people back home, so we can have a Milwaukee ourselves.”
However, the rabbi said, “Seeing another artist’s work is not enough.” So on Oct. 8, CBINT will host another event, an evening workshop where community members will produce original art.
Jody Hirsh, a longtime local leader in the Jewish arts, is helping to plan the event and made Rabbi Alter aware of Engelmayer’s work.
The Oct. 8 event will include the creation of art in various forms, from writing to visual art to music. Facilitators will assist community members with the different art forms. There will also be more reflective sessions that night, with a psychologist leading a grief circle and a rabbi hosting a Torah-reading session. The Israeli emissary, Noa Gerassi, will lead a session on Israeli poems from the last year. The night will also include a communal dinner.
“What is produced that evening will be incorporated into the exhibit,” Alter said.
In the last year, CBINT has held various events related to Oct. 7, the war, and the hostages. Congregants who have traveled to Israel have come back to brief the community, and CBINT hosted programs on antisemitism last November and January. A Walk for Their Lives was also held at the synagogue in mid-August.
“It’s important to me that it be a community event, that the community come together to express our grief, to do something productive with that grief, and to fold it into our prayers for the year ahead,” Rabbi Alter said.
“We know we can’t enter into the High Holidays without contending with this enormous pain. And part of Eleh Ezkerah is to take that pain and to fold it into how we present ourselves to God on Yom Kippur, to try to carry it with us into encounter rather than allow it only to exist as a weight and a barrier. And that’s why the artistic expression is so important.”
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Daily postcards party
One of the “daily postcards” that Israeli artist Zeev Engelmayer posted to Instagram, on Aug. 5, for the birthday of hostage Ariel Bibas. The piece is called, “Another birthday.” Screenshot image.
Tears daily postcard
This “daily postcard,” posted on Instagram by artist Zeev Engelmayer, is called “tears.” One Instagram commenter wrote, translated from Hebrew: “I look around me at the eyes of the people – on the street, at work, in the supermarket, in the kidnappers’ tent, in the cemeteries, in the hotels, among the ruins – and it seems to me that everyone’s heart aches.” Screenshot image.
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How to go
Want to see the 21-painting exhibit from Israeli artist Zeev Engelmayer, at Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, opening in late September? Or would you like to join the Oct. 8 event there, where facilitators will assist community members with art, followed by reflection? There is no fee for either. See the CBINT website for RSVP information. During the High Holy Days, the 21-painting exhibit will be open to the community for people attending services.
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