Is it Okay to Seek Joy?

Celebrations are joyful, yet humble, in a world of broken glass. 
--Artist Holly Berger Markhoff

Why do we devote an exhibition at HUC-JIR's Heller Museum to "Seeking Joy" when there is so much turmoil and sadness in the world? We celebrate because moments of joy are what make life meaningful. Life is a mixture of joy and sadness, sometimes both at the same time.

King Solomon's approach during his many challenges offers wisdom today. According to a well-known midrash, he wore a ring inscribed with three Hebrew letters: gimel,zayen, and yud, the abbreviation for gam zeh ya'avor - "this too shall pass." These words continue to bring comfort and reassurance to us today.

In "Seeking Joy," on view at the Heller Museum at HUC-JIR/New York through June 26, 2025, over 50 artists share moments of happiness they have experienced.

In "Joy, Not Babel," Jeffrey Schrier experimentally manipulated cutouts of the word for "joy" in four languages: Arabic, Ethiopian Amharic, Tibetan, and Hebrew. This is meant to emphasize the commonality of the human experience. However, after October 7^th, Schrier literally reframed the piece, saying: "[I used] torn and burnt leftover prints as a border treatment. These ripped images reflect the Jewish custom of tearing a ribbon or garment as an expression of loss."

Embroidery allows Rachel Braun to enter and interpret Jewish sacred texts. "I designed and stitched 'World of Your Dreams' for a bar mitzvah child to resemble an opened Torah scroll. It includes the English lyrics of Debbie Friedman's song, "World of Your Dreams," that was adapted from the Talmud: 'May your eyes shine with the light of Torah; may your hope touch every generation to come'" (Berachot 17a).

Lucinda Luvass's "Waterfall" is part of a series that celebrates the natural world and our place in it. She shared that, "I want to depict a world where we embrace the oneness of all on our planet and celebrate what we all have in common rather than extolling our differences."

In "A Celebration of Life," Philip Riley depicts a chrysalis that will soon emerge as a beautiful butterfly. He shared his inspiration was the "everyday miracles [that] happen out of sight and under our feet. The joy of creation is everywhere, if we only take the time to see."

Holly Berger Markhoff's "Silent Celebration," created in response to the Covid pandemic, captures the mixed emotions of those enduring loss or struggle. She explained that "the festively attired celebrants express subdued, cautious smiles, recognizing that while life must be celebrated, it may coincide with our own, or another's, pain."

Lilianne Milgrom's diptych, "Childhood Joy (I and II)," portrays the innocence of childhood. She explained that "the paintings were completed just before Covid and capture a moment in time that we wish we could hold onto forever. As a mother, I envied my children's capacity for celebrating joyful moments with such abandon. As the child of Holocaust survivors, the expression of unfettered, unencumbered joy at times felt bittersweet."

Naomi Grossman's "The Wedding" is a delicate wire sculpture of two female forms, embedded with loving words as their skin, which conveys strength and fragility in the union of marriage. Grossman's inspiration was the advent of marriage equality. She said that "I wanted to give voice to the joy of two people being able to share their lives together freely."

Peachy Levy invokes the "SchehecheyanuShehecheyanuשֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ"[God] who has kept us alive;" blessing recited to acknowledge beginnings, happy occasions; and festivals. ," blessing which expresses thanks to God, with the dominant Hebrew letter shin framing the home with a seven-branched menorah. The Schehecheyanu blessing is recited at joyful moments of beginning as we look forward to more joyful moments ahead.

Expressing the human capacity for resilience and hope, the artworks in "Seeking Joy" lighten our hearts as a source of strength, empathy, and faith in a peaceful future.

Heller Museum, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion 
One West Fourth Street, New York, NY 10012 

Admission: Free

Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9:00 am - 6:30 pm

Tours/Info: 212-824-2218 | hellermuseum@huc.edu

View the exhibition virtually on the free Heller Museum app

Images: dropbox link to entire show, including the highlighted works captioned