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Whatever it is, the waypcoming Course - Untangling Tselem Elohim (Image of God),
April 22, 29, May 6: Tuesdays 3pm ET, noon PT
Is the idea that humans are made in God's image (b'tselem elohim) really THE supreme Jewish value? What are the downsides of this seemingly progressive concept? Who and what is excluded (historically and in the present)? In an age of climate catastrophe what Jewish alternatives exist? Join me in exploring these questions in an ancient Jewish archive of rabbinic, mystical, and magical sources.
Spoilers: the rabbis weren't as wild about the human-as-image of God as you might think, jewish zoology and biology blurred the boundaries between the human and the nonhuman, even to the extent of queering sacrosanct ideas some people may have about human reproduction and gender.
Artist Talk - North Carolina Museum of Art
Join us for Cocktails and Conversations, a series exploring contemporary art and the NCMA’s renowned Judaic Art Gallery. We welcome Rafe Neis, an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and scholar of ancient history and Talmud who lives and works in Ann Arbor. They will share their work exploring Talmudic attitudes towards gender and sexuality, and how art and scholarship meet in their practice.
kinDRAG: Closing for US and Our Kinds
Conversation with the artist led by Neda Ulaby, followed by performance (AnimalAdLibs), followed by community party.
L-R: Stefany Anne Golberg, Rafe Neis, and Neda Ulaby
Art show - KIN: US and Our Kinds
Neis draws together a menagerie of queer beings who dwell outside of normative gender and species. Across painting, printmaking, comics, and installation, images of rogue zoology and extravagant gender congregate. “KIN” engages ancient visual culture, classical and Jewish texts, and comics. Neis's art embraces a love for mark-making along with a disregard for the putative boundaries between abstraction and figuration.
September - December 204, at the Institute of Research on Women and Gender’s Lane Hall Gallery
KIN + LOVE = Art Opening Reception
Join the opening reception for a two-person show, with artists Rafael Neis and Anne Vetter, at the Institute of Research on Women and Gender’s Lane Hall on Tuesday, September 17, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm.
Neis and Vetter’s exhibits will be on view from September 3 - December 6, 2024. A reception with the artists will take place on September 17 at 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm.
The fall exhibits are presented with support from IRWG, the Department of Women's & Gender Studies, the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, the Humanities Institute, the History Department, IPAH, Classical Studies, Contexts for Classics, and the CEW+ Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund.