Photographer Hedva Rokach, who is visiting from Israel, stands in front of her exhibit at the Maine Jewish Museum that shows Japanese women in Israel making sushi for the country’s military. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

On a frigid night in January, the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland hosted a talk with photographer Hedva Rokach, who was visiting from Israel for an exhibition of her work.

Inside the museum, Rokach spoke about “Japanese Sushi Girls,” her photographs of Japanese women who live in Israel, preparing sushi for Israeli soldiers.

Outside, activists from Jewish Voice for Peace lit candles and prayed a mourners’ kaddish for aid workers killed in Gaza. Protesters from the Maine Coalition for Palestine held signs: “Let them eat sushi while children in Gaza starve!”

The scene mirrored a rift within American Jewish communities that has widened during the 15-month war in Gaza. Not all Jewish Mainers are experiencing the conflict in the same way, and the exhibit alienated some who feel their support for Palestine during the war has already made them unwelcome at Jewish institutions.

It also spurred a dialogue that is increasingly rare in these polarized times.

The day before the talk, organizers from Jewish Voice for Peace wrote to Dawn LaRochelle, executive director of the museum. The email stood apart from the hateful threats that she received in advance of Rokach’s visit to the United States.

“We reject this brazen show of support for Israeli nationalism and the Israeli armed forces, especially during this moment when these forces and the Israeli state have been credibly accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the email said. “In particular, we find it deeply out of touch to celebrate those who feed the soldiers of the very armies credibly accused of using starvation as a method of warfare against the Palestinian people.”

LaRochelle has insisted that the museum is not a political organization and is not making a statement about the war by exhibiting these photographs. She said so in her response to the organizers — and invited them to meet the artist and engage in conversation.

“One of the many tragedies of war and conflict — any war and conflict — is that people tend to dehumanize those they see as ‘the enemy’ and paint them with broad brushstrokes,” LaRochelle wrote.

So last week, organizers from Jewish Voice for Peace returned to the museum, this time to talk.

Protesters hold signs outside the Maine Jewish Museum on Jan. 15 to protest the opening of “Japanese Sushi Girls.” Photo by Jessica Czarnecki/JVP Maine

‘NOT A POLITICAL STATEMENT’

The Maine Jewish Museum has presented few programs that directly reference the current war in Gaza. One was an installation last year of stitched yellow ribbons to honor the Israelis taken hostage by Hamas. The exhibit coincided with the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, which the museum marked with an evening of poetry and music. LaRochelle said the event gave people a safe place to express their grief.

“I would not say that the conflict has impacted our programming and our exhibitions per se, especially because our exhibitions are typically scheduled more than a year in advance,” LaRochelle said. “What it has done more is make us really want to lean into that desire to be a place for people of all backgrounds to feel safe and feel welcome and to do our part to combat skyrocketing antisemitism.”

LaRochelle first learned about Rokach in a news story about a photo exhibition at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa, Israel. The Maine Jewish Museum had never before partnered internationally, but LaRochelle inquired about the show. Her primary interest, she said, was to highlight a little-known immigrant community in Israel.

The photographs came to Maine, and so did the photographer.

CAPTURING A MOMENT

Rokach is no stranger to protest. The artist helped organize demonstrations in Israel in 2023 to oppose the government’s plans to change the judicial system there. The country’s Supreme Court eventually struck down the controversial law.

“When democracy is shaken in Israel, my ability to express myself is also threatened,” Rokach said in a short film about the protests.

A photo exhibit at the Maine Jewish Museum shows Japanese women in Israel making sushi for the country’s military. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Rokach and her partner have volunteered to help evacuees and soldiers in Israel since the Oct. 7 attack. On Facebook, she learned about a friend who was planning to make sushi for Israeli troops. Rokach spent two hours with the women, who chatted and sang in Japanese as they worked. They signed notes to accompany the delivery: “From the Japanese Sushi Girls.”

The artist described the experience as tender and beautiful.

“They’re making the sushi, and they’re beaming with light,” Rokach said. “It is so strange to think about the harmony and order they had while the country is in chaos. There is loss all around us.”

The scene reminded Rokach of the boxes of sweets she and her schoolmates used to make for soldiers. “People can ask me, what were my intentions?” she said. “And they can have their stories. That is the thing I cannot control. It took me a while to learn that as an artist and as a person.”

FINDING COMMUNITY

Polls by Pew Research Center show that younger Jewish Americans tend to feel less connected to Israel and less supportive of the country’s military action in the Middle East. In Maine, organizers said the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace has attracted more than 100 members, including three dozen who showed up to pray outside the museum on the day of Rokach’s talk.

The group set up a table on the sidewalk with flyers about the humanitarian needs in Gaza. Just hours before, the news broke about the fragile ceasefire that is now in place. Leo Hilton, a group member, said a couple people stopped to talk on their way into the museum, optimistic about that development.

Leo Hilton, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace in Maine, lights candles outside the Maine Jewish Museum on Jan. 15. Photo by Jessica Czarnecki/JVP Maine

As a teenager, Hilton had his bar mitzvah at Etz Chaim Synagogue, which houses the Maine Jewish Museum. As an adult, he sees his Jewish faith as separate from the Jewish state.

“I feel a deeper connection with my Jewish faith now than I think I have at any time in my life,” Hilton said. “It is particularly heartbreaking to not feel like I have a Jewish space in Portland that feels like a welcoming community aside from the one that I am helping to craft myself.”

Lillie Pearlman said she and others have struggled to find Jewish institutions that are willing to hear any criticism of Israel. She found Jewish Voice for Peace instead.

“Having this growing community that is so clear on this issue of conscience is really valuable to me and has meant a lot,” she said.

DISAGREEING, TOGETHER

Four organizers from Jewish Voice for Peace met with the artist on a Monday afternoon. LaRochelle joined the group, along with a local artist whom she did not identify.

The private conversation lasted more than three hours. The words people used to describe the meeting: “Messy.” “Difficult.” “Very painful.” “Humanizing.”

Dawn LaRochelle, the executive director of the Maine Jewish Museum, said “I’m just helping to facilitate conversations and taking what I’m hearing and trying to make the museum a more open and inclusive space for a plurality of people.” Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

“I’m just helping to facilitate conversations and taking what I’m hearing and trying to make the museum a more open and inclusive space for a plurality of people,” LaRochelle said. “Nothing is going to be fixed in a day or a week or a month, but I think with good intentions and open hearts and open minds, we all grow, we all learn.”

One point of contention was what it means for an institution to be apolitical.

“I don’t believe it’s possible,” Hilton said. “I think it is incumbent on all sorts of cultural institutions to take a stance of resistance. If they’re not making a political statement that aligns themselves toward liberation, the lack of a political statement is something that advances oppression.”

The meeting did not change anyone’s mind. But it was not without hope.

“That showed me how deep these differences are,” Pearlman said. “All of that was really hard and discouraging. But what did feel hopeful was that we did sit down, and I do feel that more of a relationship with the museum is possible.”

“It is important to me that we are able to sit at the same table without indicating that we agree with each other,” she added. “It is deeply in the Jewish tradition, and it hopeful to me that this may be an opportunity for us to be more within our values of actually sitting with each other in disagreement.”

LaRochelle said the museum could not collaborate on programming with Jewish Voice for Peace because it is a political organization, but said members could still share their ideas. Still, Hilton said he is interested in building the relationship, and the meeting did not end their email exchange.

Later that week, LaRochelle reached back out.

“Any chance you can meet me for coffee next Monday?”

This story was updated on Sunday, Feb. 9, to correct the spelling of Jessica Czarnecki’s name in a photo credit.