Clothing is intended to cover our bodies, but it also uncovers. To what extent is our choice of dress freely made, and how do our surroundings affect our decisions? This exhibition will focus on how clothes balance the personal with the social, how dress traditions distinguish different Jewish communities, and how they portray Jewish and secular affiliations within a larger societal context. These exquisite objects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries demonstrate how diverse global cultures have thrived, interacted and inspired each other for centuries.

The Textile Lab is a hands-on educational annex to the exhibition Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Dress, from the Collection of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Located in The Museum’s Stephen and Maribelle Leavitt Yud Gallery, the Textile Lab delves into the craftsmanship and embellishment of fabrics from the exhibition and explore contemporary local connections to the clothing traditions. The space offers opportunities to weave on large looms, to play with draping and dressing, and to embroider. It also features a listening station with interviews of community members from the regions represented in the exhibition, a community-driven photo montage, and pop-up programs with textile artists, musicians, and community members from Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

Visual artist Oxossi Ayofemi and her chosen havruta partner, groundbreaking Stanford physicist Risa Wechsler, infuse the concept of dark matter and dark energy with notions of power, blackness, diaspora, economy, and utopian imagination. What if our city and economy were built from a metaphor of abundance instead of scarcity?

“Lew the Jew” Alberts (1880–1954) was one of the most influential artists tattooing in NYC’s Bowery at the beginning of the twenti­eth century. The exhibition includes previously unpublished and rare original tattoo artwork, photos, and correspondence between Lew and San Francisco tattooers “Brooklyn Joe” Lieber and C. J. ”Pop” Eddy. 

What shapes us? What family stories become our core stories? What pieces of ourselves are formed and reformed from our heritage? What We Hold features individual audio segments from over seventy teens, each reflecting on the people, moments, and voices that have imprinted on their identities. These compelling recordings offer a rare window into personal reflections of youth today.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum commissioned artwork by Sacramento-based artist Dave Lane to be placed in its soaring lobby space. The massive sculpture, entitled Lamp of the Covenant, is a 90-foot-long, six ton work suspended high over the heads of visitors. Attached to an enormous oval of steel are antique objects: world globes, light bulbs, tools such as nineteenth century apple peelers and blow torches, and various other objects that suggest the unfolding marvels of the cosmos.