“Heroines and Housewives”

They started out as a group of Israeli women artists gathering regularly to critique and support one another’s work. They ended up with a cooperative exhibition, held at Jerusalem’s Antea Gallery. The show, which comes directly out of the mutual mentoring process, is called “Housewives and Heroines,” playing on the text of the psalm “Woman of Valor.” Rita Mendes-Flohr, gallery director, says the work on display “places women’s strength at the center of the discussion.”

Below: “A Woman’s Freedom” by Hadassah Berry, who states in the catalog that the piece “addresses the status of women, and their position in Judaism…where progress has been achieved, but is still inadequate.” Sharon Binder, in “Two Sisters’ Journey” illustrates the narrative of her mother and aunt leaving Europe and making a life — and a living — in the U.S., “They have inspired me to propose a new definition of housewife.” About “Breast Plates” Mallory Serebrin Jacobs, a potter, says “My marriage brought five children into my life… and then we had a son. Feeding became a major occupation. For this show I focused on plates that feed, thus the Breast Plate. Surrounding the breast are my neverending to-do lists.”