SAN FRANCISCO — Early on Thursday night, June 6, proper earlier than the Modern Jewish Museum’s first-ever open name exhibition opened to the general public, dozens of anti-Zionist Jewish artists and supporters crowded the plaza in entrance of the establishment in an motion that included art-making, speeches, and the reside destruction of a sculpture contained in the museum.
The group’s 15 organizers, generally known as California Jewish Artists for Palestine (CJAFP), embrace 11 who initially submitted their work to the museum’s open name with a plan to flood the exhibition with anti-Zionist artwork. Whereas 4 of the group’s candidates have been rejected, the seven who have been accepted all selected to withdraw their work, citing a battle over using the time period “Zionism” and a prohibitive contract that artists felt left them with little to no autonomy over how their work was introduced.
The evening’s actions have been sobered by a grim statistic: Within the seven months since Hamas’s October 7 assault, Israel has killed greater than 36,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

In response to the absence of the seven artists’ work, the Modern Jewish Museum left a big wall of the exhibition clean, with a placard explaining that to “authentically replicate the battle for dialogue that’s illustrated by the artists’ choices to withdraw, the areas the place every of those works have been deliberate to be displayed have been deliberately left empty.”
“It’s an empty gesture,” mentioned artist and protest co-organizer Steph Kudisch of the clean wall. “It felt like a manner of flipping the blame onto us to make us appear unreasonable.”
In a public assertion launched June 5, King and board chair Tom Kasten wrote that the establishment maintained its stance that “to name for the swift return of all Israeli hostages and an finish to the continued violence towards Palestinian civilians will not be a political stance however a necessary ethical place.”
“As an establishment, we’ve earlier than, and can proceed to current works which may be important of Israel and present help for Palestinians,” the assertion mentioned. “Nevertheless, what we can not do is query the best of Israel to exist in any respect, implicitly or explicitly.”
A spokesperson for the Modern Jewish Museum informed Hyperallergic that they supported the protest outdoors and wouldn’t transfer to finish it if it remained peaceable, which it did.
By 6pm, the house was crammed with tables providing printmaking, chalk drawing, reside portray, and a brass band; audio system within the plaza took turns at a microphone, some with conventional Jewish chanting and singing. As nightfall fell, museum-goers joined a line of over 80 folks trickling inside. Steel detectors and safety personnel scanned every individual.
A customer named Scott Berman stood watching the demonstration earlier than becoming a member of his spouse in line. He was impressed by what he noticed because the coexistence of the artwork contained in the museum and the protest outdoors.
“I believe it is a good mannequin,” Berman informed Hyperallergic. “Nobody’s hating one another. I’m Jewish; I’ve a robust connection to Israel. However there’s loads of room to sentence what [Prime Minister] Netanyahu has finished.”


CJAFP organizer and Jewish artist Kate Laster was unfazed. “We owe Gaza our endurance,” she informed Hyperallergic. “That is pressing. There’s a genocide taking place in Palestine, and we have to normalize how we speak about this stuff.”
Open name artist Vanessa Thill emphasised that the group was there to protest the establishment, not the present’s individuals. Artists have been requested to undergo the open name across the theme of “connection,” and at first, Thill had felt inspired by curator Heidi Rabin’s assurances that pro-Palestine views could be accepted.
However because the opening neared, Thill felt much less and fewer supported in her anti-Zionist views. There was little dialogue amongst artists even after she reached out to the group to debate Israel’s ongoing assaults on Gaza — and that dialogue didn’t appear to be inspired.
Upstairs, round 7pm, as lots of of attendees handed by, Thill stood subsequent to her sculpture “Cleave-To (His Cheeks Had been Beds of Spices)” (2023), consisting of two giant crescent shapes forged in numerous spices, graphite, and pretend blood. Thill learn the normal Kaddish prayer adopted by the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. She then learn the names of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. And in a remaining act violating her museum’s artist contract, Thill broke her sculpture into three items. She introduced the third piece to the gang outdoors.
“The theme of the present is connection,” she mentioned. “I felt we needed to really go outdoors [the museum] to try this.”


In March, earlier than withdrawing, among the artists mentioned they have been repeatedly requested by curators to outline “Zionism” and “anti-Zionism,” with every definition returned again to them for edits and clarification. In a single occasion, the deadline for definitions was in the course of the workday.
“We realized the museum was not prepared to have interaction with us in good religion,” mentioned Kudisch. “And so they saved telling us ‘there shall be kindergarteners there,’ as if speaking to kids about Palestine was inappropriate or an excessive amount of for them.”
The group additionally despatched an inventory of calls for to the museum, which included making use of public stress to finish the siege on Gaza, disclosing funding and investments and divesting from entities affiliated with Israel.
“They despatched an electronic mail again saying they may meet among the calls for, however not all. We requested them which of them particularly they may meet, after which they responded: zero.” So the artists withdrew.

Kudisch and fellow organizer Kate Laster have been each accepted into and withdrew from the open-call exhibition. Since their protest, she mentioned, they’ve been met with a slew of harassment.
“It might veer into this bizarre anti-Semitism,” mentioned Laster. “Individuals will ask me, ‘are you even Jewish? Individuals have been very indignant that we’ve taken away this fable that helps Zionism, which some persons are unwilling or uncomfortable speaking about.”
“I’ve been accused of being a ‘kapo,’” Kudisch mentioned in a name with Hyperallergic the day earlier than the demonstration, referring to a time period used for Jewish individuals who collaborated with Nazis through the Holocaust.
For a lot of, advocating for Palestine additionally means highlighting ideological and ethnic variety inside Judaism. “The primary voices which were uplifted in Judaism in America have been the White, principally Ashkenazi Jewish voices,” mentioned Jacob Li Rosenberg, who’s Chinese language and Jewish.
“Multiracial Jewish views are nonetheless working to be platformed. Holding a number of identities is admittedly essential to incorporate on this dialog particularly,” he mentioned.
Li Rosenberg utilized to the California Jewish Open in March and was rejected. He had submitted a print with the phrases “Free Palestine” in Hebrew, layered over a poppy — an emblem of Palestine.

Upstairs, Marin resident Sam Vitaro sat on a bench in entrance of the clean wall. “I believe it is a good compromise,” he mentioned, gesturing behind him. His buddy subsequent to him was extra skeptical. “I learn the assertion and simply was confused. What are they saying?”
Work by Vitaro’s spouse, artist Stela Mandel, are positioned on the finish of the clean wall. One piece depicted a rally from early in 2023 criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political reign. The opposite confirmed a protest calling for the return of Israeli hostages. Subsequent to the 20-plus toes of clean wall, the principally blue and white items stood out.
“The entire thought of Jewish anti-Zionism is surprising to me,” mentioned Mandel, whose household survived the Holocaust. She pointed to the expanse of wall beside her. “[But] I do really feel that it’s too unhealthy folks had one thing to say right here, and aren’t right here to say it.”
For the anti-Zionist organizers, that’s precisely the purpose. “That is de-colonial organizing,” mentioned Thill.
“Identical to all the faculty college students asking their establishments to radically restructure. If our main establishments can’t exist with out Zionist funding, then what does that imply? In the event that they’re not prepared, then will we even want them? Possibly they should dissolve.”
By 8:30pm, crews have been hosing down the chalk artwork within the plaza. “I don’t assume it’s graffiti,” mentioned one employee. He pointed as much as the 4 Seasons residences looming on the east facet of the sq.: “However they do.”

