Art Show Becomes a Debate Over Portrayals of Orthodox Women

NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS
By Debra Rubin

The Coat of the Chained Woman by Andi Arnovitz 

NEW JERSEY---A program at Rutgers University on feminist art in Israel took an unexpectedly contentious turn when audience members began debating the sometimes negative portrayal of tradition in work that depicts religious Jewish women. The artwork — created by religious women and featured in a presentation by Paula Birnbaum, associate professor and director of the art history and arts management program at the University of San Francisco — offered commentary, often critical, of the treatment and attitudes toward women within Orthodoxy. [link]

The Coat of the Chained Woman by American-born Israeli artist Andi Arnovitz depicts the plight of women unable to obtain a get, or religious divorce, from their husbands and so are not free to remarry. The piece is made from shredded copies of ketubot, or marriage contracts, with threads hanging, contrasting the joy of Jewish marriage with the agony of agunot, or chained women.