Laura Hodes writes about the arts frequently for the Forward and other publications.
Laura Hodes
By Laura Hodes
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Culture Excavating Poland’s Last Remaining Mezuzas From Before the Holocaust
Helena Czernek and Aleksander Prugar have been trekking around Poland both as artists and as archaeologists: They’re searching for traces of mezuzas on Jewish homes that were abandoned or destroyed during the Holocaust. For the artists’ project, “Mezuzah From This Home,” the duo first identifies what Prugar calls “marks of existence” on doorframes across the…
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Culture Better Call Saul Steinberg
This is the centenary year of artist Saul Steinberg, probably best known for his cover art for The New Yorker, particularly, “View of the World from 9th Avenue,” his illustration of the world as seen by a typically myopic New Yorker. As part of the celebratory events surrounding the centenary, the Art Institute of Chicago…
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Culture ‘Jews Who Rock’ Only Scratches Surface of Fame and Faith
In the gallery of Jewish Museum Milwaukee, sunlight streams in through windows that display colorful floor-to-ceiling banners from a concert shot taken at Milwaukee Summerfest in 1995. Nearby is a display of a redwood and abalone inlay bass guitar loaned to the museum by members of Howie Epstein’s family. Howie, bassist for Tom Petty and…
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Culture Andy Warhol Jewish Show Gets 15 More Minutes of Fame in Milwaukee
When Andy Warhol’s “10 Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century” was originally exhibited at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1980, it was popular with the Jewish public, but generated controversy among art critics. Hilton Kramer and Robert Hughes accused Warhol of pandering to the synagogue circuit. Kramer wrote: “The show is vulgar….
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Opinion Confessions of a Jewish Halloween Grinch
At this time of year I feel like a Jewish Halloween Grinch. My children, 4, 8 and 10, are old enough to know that their mother takes no joy in Halloween. My four year old asked me, upon walking up to someoneʼs house in town, why our house isnʼt decorated for Halloween. I explain, again,…
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Life Mourning My Friend and My Dad
Last week I attended the funeral of a girl who was my age, 39. Jodi and I grew up together. We lived next door to each other as children, from when I moved into my house right before kindergarten until we left for college. For me she will always be that little girl that I…
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Life Artists Launch Sukkah Salon in New York City
This Sukkot, New York-based artist Danielle Durchslag launched “Assembly Required: A Sukkah Salon” on the terrace of her downtown apartment. The project, which she co-curated with artist Ryan Frank, was so successful that it was extended through September 30, past the actual date of Sukkot. That the Sukkah Salon’s existence outlasted the original lifetime of…
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Culture The Extraordinary Heroism of Hannah Senesh
Hannah Senesh was a young Hungarian poet and diarist who was captured and executed November 7, 1944, at age 23, by military police after parachuting into Yugoslavia and then entering Hungary to try to smuggle Jews out of the country. Many know of her brave act of enlisting with the British army and the Haganah,…
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