Julie's Birthday: Inner Beauty in Loving Kindness

Today is Julie’s birthday in the Hebrew calendar when loving kindness and beauty come together.   

It is the third day of the counting of the omer marking the 49 days from the Exodus from Egypt to the receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Each of these days has a unique character. It is most fitting that Julie’s birthday falls when the Divine attributes Tiferet (beauty that combines compassion with inner strength) and Hesed (loving kindness) merge.

Women in the Torah represent each of the ten Divine attribute in the Tree of Life that describes the creative process of both God as the Creator of all and human creativity.

Ruth represents Hesed by refusing to leave her widowed and destitute mother-in-law Naomi, following her from her land of Moav to the land of Israel. 

“Where you go, I will go. Your home will be my home. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”  (Ruth 1: 16-17)

Rebecca represents Tiferet by her giving a drink of water to a thirsty stranger and to his camels.  It was the sign that he has found the right woman to become for Isaac’s wife. Tiferet is an aesthetic integration of Hesed and Gevurah (inner strength). She demonstrated her Gevurah by refusing to wait to leave her home to go forth on the long trip to meet and marry Isaac.

Abraham’s emissary prayed when he left on a mission to find a bride for Abraham’s son Isaac.

“If I say to a girl, ‘Tip over your jug and let me drink,’ and she replies, ‘Drink and I will also give water to your camels, ‘she will be the one designated by God for Isaac.” (Genesis 24: 14)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR DEAREST JULIE. MAY ALL YOUR PRAYERS BE ANSWERED.  

MAZEL TOV!

LOVE, IMA AND ABBA

Cyberangels of Peace Fly from Israel Museum in Jerusalem to Crossroads of Civilization Museum in Dubai

 

To H.E. Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori, Founder of the Crossroads of Civilization Museum

My artwork shows Rembrandt-inspired cyberangels of peace on their virtual flight from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to the Crossroads of Civilization Museum in Dubai.

Please have it digitally printed out on paper or canvas as a new media artwork for your museum collection that links your museum to the Israel Museum’s Shrine of Book that houses the oldest copies of the Bible in its original Hebrew language.

It exemplifies your insightful article in the Jerusalem Post, “Why culture is vital in easing the path to peace” and your statement “It is our role to translate the peace deal into tangible outcomes through people-to-people connections” quoted in the Jerusalem Post article highlighting the shared history of Jews and Arabs.

My new media artworks are in the collections of more than thirty museums throughout the world, from Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, to Art Museum of The Hague in The Netherlands.  I was art professor at Columbia University and universities in Israel, and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.

Before partaking of the Sabbath eve meal, Jewish families sing, “May your coming be for peace, Angels of Peace, angels of the Exalted One.” The song begins with the words shalom aleikhem (may peace be with you). Shalom aleikhem is the traditional Hebrew greeting when people meet. It is akin to the Arabic greeting salam aleikum. May the Hebrew Malakh Shalom and the Arabic Malak Salam be recognized as one and the same Angel of Peace.

I also propose that I collaborate with a UAE artist in creating an art exhibition at both the Crossroads of Civilization Museum and Ashdod Art Museum in Israel. I suggest calling the exhibition “Parentheses of the Middle East: From the Gulf to the Sea.” Dubai is the major UAE port and Ashdod is Israel’s major port city. Dr. Yehiel Lasry, the mayor of Ashdod, is negotiating to make Ashdod and Dubai sister cities.

Dr. Lasry is particularly happy today that Morocco has followed the lead of UAE in normalizing relations with Israel. He was born in Morocco and came to Ashdod when he was six. He studied medicine at Ben-Gurion University, was Surgeon-General of Israel’s navy, member of Knesset, and a founder of the Andalusian Orchestra that creates a cultural bridge between Israel and Arab countries. Its purpose is to enrich the musical and cultural dialogue between Israeli and Arab artists. (Disclosure: Yehiel Lasry is my son-in-law.)

Respectfully yours,

Dr. Mel Alexenberg

Author of the highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens that tells the story of a descendent of Abraham's son Isaac living with his family in the Land of Israel in a postdigital era. I speaks to Arab descendents of Abraham's son Ishmael and Christian followers of Jesus, also of the seed on Isaac. 

Cyberangels of Peace Fly from Israel Museum to Sharjah Art Foundation in UAE

 

American-Israeli artist Mel Alexenberg lauched cyberangels of peace on flights from Israel Museum to Sharjah Art Foundation in UAE. These digital flights of Rembrandt-inspired cyberangels honor the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Washington.

He created an artwork that shows a cyberangel of peace ascending from the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book, where the oldest Bible texts are exhibited, and entering into the Sharjah Art Foundation.

His  cyberangel flights from Israel to thirty museums on five continents that have Rembrandt-inspired artworks by Alexenberg in their collections. These images are augmented by texts on the impact of digital culture on contemporary art by the artist, former art professor at Columbia University, research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and professor at universities in Israel.

Mel Alexenberg's 2004 exhibition Cyberangels: Aesthetic Peace Plan for the Middle East at the Jewish Museum in Prague anticipated this historic event on the White House lawn. It presented aesthetic values derived from Islamic art that invites a perceptual shift through which Muslims see Israel as a blessing expressing Allah’s will rather than as an alien presence in the midst of the Islamic world. Weavers of beautiful Islamic carpets include a small counter pattern in their designs that can symbolize a Jewish state living in peace surrounded by friendly Muslim states. His blog Aesthetic Peace includes testimony from Islamic leaders on the religious validity of his concept of aesthetic peace. The photo above shows the artist explaining his aesthetic peace plan to the ambassadors of the United States and Israel at the opening of the exhibition.  

One of his Digital Homage to Rembrandt cyberangel artworks has been in Washington in the collection of The National Museum of American History since 1987 as a historic exemplar of computer-generated fine art printmaking. These cyberangels that have been dormant in the museum’s flat files have awakened in 2020 both as a tribute to Rembrandt and to the historic Abraham Accords uniting the decedents of Abraham’s two sons Isaac and Ishmael.

His cyberangel flight from Israel to the Gulf coast was preceded by Alexenberg’s cyberangel faxart flight around the globe via AT&T satellites on the 320^th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. On the morning of October 4, 1989, it ascended from New York, flew to Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam to Jerusalem to Tokyo to Los Angeles, returning to New York on the same afternoon. When it passed through Tokyo, it was already the morning of October 5^th. Cyberangels cannot only fly around the globe, they can fly into tomorrow and back into yesterday. The photo above shows Mel Alexenberg in period garb receiving his Rembrandt-inspired cyberangel in his studio in Rembrandt House on its circumglobal flight.

Mel Alexenberg was invited to create one of his early Rembrandt-inspired cyberangel artworks by the Israel Museum affiliated graphics center in Jerusalem at the time he was head of the art department at Pratt Institute in New York where he taught “Fine Art with Computers.” It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as an expression of the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up a ladder from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. This serigraph is in the collection of the Israel Museum.

 These cyberangels emerge from a smartphone screen on the cover of Professor Alexenberg’s most recent book on biblical insights in our smartphones and social media Through a Bible Lens. A smartphone has the power to make this biblical vision a reality. Reading his highly acclaimed book offers opportunities for Arab cousins of the Jewish people to get to know about the life and beliefs of descendants of Ishmael’s brother Isaac living today in the Land of Israel.  

Before partaking of the Sabbath eve meal, Jewish families sing, “May your coming be for peace, Angels of Peace, angels of the Exalted One.” The song begins with the words shalom aleikhem (may peace be with you). Shalom aleikhem is the traditional Hebrew greeting when people meet. It is akin to the Arabic greeting salam aleikum. Indeed, the word Islam itself is derived from the same root as salam (peace). May the Hebrew Malakh Shalom and the Arabic Malak Salam be recognized as one and the same Angel of Peace.

For further information and requests for interviews, contact Prof. Mel Alexenberg at melalexenberg@yahoo.com, phone in Israel 052-855-1223, international call +972-52-855-1223

Cyberangels of Peace Fly from Israel Museum to Bahrain Museum of Contemporary Art

    

    American-Israeli artist Mel Alexenberg lauched Rembrandt-inspired cyberangels of peace on flights from the Israel Museum to the Bahrain Museum of Contemporary Art in honor of The Abraham Accords.  

  This cyberangel flight virtually followed the first El Al flight to Manama from Ben-Gurion Airport. They honor Israel and Bahrain on their establishing peaceful and diplomatic relations that build upon the Abraham Accords signed by Bahraini Foreign Minister Al-Zayani in Washington.   

    Alexenberg’s digital artwork shows a cyberangel of peace ascending from the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book, where the oldest Bible texts are exhibited, and entering into the Bahrain Museum of Contemporary Art. It expresses a historic event of biblical proportions that heralds the emergence of a different spirit reshaping relationships between the Arab and Jewish peoples.

    Four thousand years after Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac came together to bury their father, their heirs came together in brotherhood on the White House lawn. Muslim foreign ministers of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, the Jewish prime minister of Israel, and the Christian president of the United State of America, representatives of the three Abrahamic religions launched a new era of peace in the Middle East.

 

Children in Jerusalem draped in flags of Bahrain, Israel, and UAE 

     Alexenberg documents the digital flights from Israel to Bahrain, the Emirates, and other signatures to The Abraham Accords on his blog The Abraham Accord. His cyberangels also fly from Israel to thirty museums on five continents that have his artworks in their collections. He wrote about the impact of digital culture on contemporary art in his highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens. He is former art professor at Columbia University, research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and professor at universities in Israel.

     Mel Alexenberg's exhibition Cyberangels: Aesthetic Peace Plan for the Middle East at the Jewish Museum in Prague anticipated this historic event in Manama. It presented aesthetic values derived from Islamic art that invites a perceptual shift through which Muslims see Israel as a blessing expressing Allah’s will rather than as an alien presence in the midst of the Islamic world. His blog Aesthetic Peace shows how Islamic carpets symbolize a Jewish state living in peace surrounded by friendly Muslim states.

      At the Sabbath eve meal, the artist and his family join Jewish families throughout the world singing, “May your coming be for peace, Angels of Peace, angels of the Exalted One.” The song begins with the words shalom aleikhem (may peace be with you). Shalom aleikhem is the traditional Hebrew greeting when people meet, akin to the Arabic greeting salam aleikum. Indeed, the word Islam itself is derived from the same root as salam (peace). May the Hebrew Malakh Shalom and the Arabic Malak Salam be recognized as one and the same Angel of Peace.

 For further information and requests for interviews, contact Prof. Mel Alexenberg at melalexenberg@yahoo.com, international call +972-55-855-1223. 

Cyberangels of Peace Fly from Israel Museum to Louvre Abu Dhabi

American-Israeli artist Mel Alexenberg launched cyberangels of peace on flights from Israel Museum to Louvre Abu Dhabi. These digital flights of Rembrandt-inspired cyberangels honor the signing of the Abraham Accord between Israel and United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Washington.

This historic event forging ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors occurs during the year that Rembrandt is being honored on the 350th anniversary of his death by museums from Leiden where he was born, to Amsterdam where he established his art studio, to Oxford, Madrid, Ontario, New York, and Abu Dhabi.

 Louvre Abu Dhabi presented the exhibition Rembrandt, Vermeer & the Dutch Golden Age, masterpieces from The Leiden Collection founded by the American Thomas S. Kaplan whose wife Dafna in the daughter of Israeli artist Mira Recanati. Dr. Kaplan writes “More than any other painter’s legacy, we believe Rembrandt’s ability to touch the soul represents a uniquely fitting expression of this visionary Franco-Emirati project seeking to promote tolerance and the common civilization of mankind.”

Alexenberg documents the digital flights from Israel to the Emirates on his Abraham Accords blog. He created an artwork that shows a cyberangel of peace ascending from the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book, where the oldest Bible texts are exhibited, and entering into the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

His blog Global Tribute to Rembrandt documents cyberangel flights from Israel to thirty museums on five continents that have Rembrandt-inspired artworks by Alexenberg in their collections. These images are augmented by texts on the impact of digital culture on contemporary art by the artist, former art professor at Columbia University, research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and professor at universities in Israel.

Mel Alexenberg's 2004 exhibition Cyberangels: Aesthetic Peace Plan for the Middle East at the Jewish Museum in Prague anticipated this historic event on the White House lawn. It presented aesthetic values derived from Islamic art that invites a perceptual shift through which Muslims see Israel as a blessing expressing Allah’s will rather than as an alien presence in the midst of the Islamic world. Weavers of beautiful Islamic carpets include a small counter pattern in their designs that can symbolize a Jewish state living in peace surrounded by friendly Muslim states. His blog Aesthetic Peace includes testimony from Islamic leaders on the religious validity of his concept of aesthetic peace. The photo above shows the artist explaining his aesthetic peace plan to the ambassadors of the United States and Israel at the opening of the exhibition.  

One of his Digital Homage to Rembrandt cyberangel artworks has been in Washington in the collection of The National Museum of American History since 1987 as a historic exemplar of computer-generated fine art printmaking. These cyberangels that have been dormant in the museum’s flat files have awakened in 2020 both as a tribute to Rembrandt and to the historic Abraham Accords uniting the decedents of Abraham’s two sons Isaac and Ishmael.

His cyberangel flight from Israel on the Mediterranean coast to the Gulf coast states was preceded by Alexenberg’s cyberangel faxart flight around the globe via AT&T satellites on the 320^th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. On the morning of October 4, 1989, it ascended from New York, flew to Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam to Jerusalem to Tokyo to Los Angeles, returning to New York on the same afternoon. When it passed through Tokyo, it was already the morning of October 5^th. Cyberangels cannot only fly around the globe, they can fly into tomorrow and back into yesterday. The photo above shows Mel Alexenberg in period garb receiving his Rembrandt-inspired cyberangel in his studio in Rembrandt House on its circumglobal flight.

Mel Alexenberg was invited to create one of his early Rembrandt-inspired cyberangel artworks by the Israel Museum affiliated graphics center in Jerusalem at the time he was head of the art department at Pratt Institute in New York where he taught “Fine Art with Computers.” It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as an expression of the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up a ladder from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. This serigraph is in the collection of the Israel Museum.

 These cyberangels emerge from a smartphone screen on the cover of Professor Alexenberg’s most recent book Through a Bible Lens: Smartphones and Social Media. A smartphone has the power to make this biblical vision a reality. 

Before partaking of the Sabbath eve meal, Jewish families sing, “May your coming be for peace, Angels of Peace, angels of the Exalted One.” The song begins with the words shalom aleikhem (may peace be with you). Shalom aleikhem is the traditional Hebrew greeting when people meet. It is akin to the Arabic greeting salam aleikum. Indeed, the word Islam itself is derived from the same root as salam (peace). May the Hebrew Malakh Shalom and the Arabic Malak Salam be recognized as one and the same Angel of Peace.

Signing The Abraham Accords in Washington

 My wife Miriam and I witnessed a historic event of biblical proportions heralding the emergence of a different spirit for shaping a new era. We watched from our home in Israel the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington D.C. on September 15, 2020.

The Bible tells that that Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac came together to bury their father. Now, four thousand years later, we saw their heirs come together in brotherhood on the White House lawn.

The Abraham Accords were signed by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Jewish prime minister of Israel, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, the Muslim foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and witnessed by Donald Trump, Christian president of the United States of America. As representatives of the three Abrahamic religions, they launched a new era of peace in the Middle East.

Text of The Abraham Accords Declaration

We, the undersigned, recognize the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East and around the world based on mutual understanding and coexistence, as well as respect for human dignity and freedom, including religious freedom.

We encourage efforts to promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue to advance a culture of peace among the three Abrahamic religions and all humanity.

We believe the best way to address challenges is through cooperation and dialogue and that developing friendly relations among states advances the interests of lasting peace in the Middle East and around the world.

We seek tolerance and respect for every person in order to make this world a place where all can enjoy a life of dignity and hope, no matter their race, faith or ethnicity.

We support science, art, medicine, and commerce to inspire humankind, maximize human potential and bring nations closer together.

We seek to end radicalization and conflict to provide all children a better future.We pursue a vision of peace, security, and prosperity in the Middle East and around the world.

In this spirit, we warmly welcome and are encouraged by the progress already made in establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and its neighbors in the region under the principles of the Abraham Accords.

Cyberangels of Peace Fly from Israel to United Arab Emirates and Bahrain

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I launched my Rembrandt-inspired cyberangels of peace on a virtual flight from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to the Louvre Abu Dhabi and to the Bahrain Museum of Contemporary Art.

While the peace accords were being signed in Washington, my daughter Iyrit phoned that the Arab terrorists ruling Gaza were launching rockets into Ashdod where she lives with her husband Dr. Yehiel Lasry, mayor of the city and former surgeon-general of Israel’s navy. She was suddenly shocked by rockets exploding in her neighborhood followed by ambulance sirens rushing the injured to the hospital. In a Kafkaesque scene, the momentous peace event continued live on the television screen in her living room.

Unfortunately, the constant Arab wars and terrorism aimed at destroying Israel and slaughtering its Jewish population living in its ancestral homeland does not suddenly come to an end with the stroke of a pen.

The paradigm shift created by the Abraham Accords is shaping a new reality of peace rather than hostility and warfare, friendship rather than enmity, appreciation of others religions and cultures rather than hate, and cooperation rather than antagonism. Extending this paradigm shift throughout the Middle East requires a different spirit, a creative spirit that will offer a bright future for all people.

Israel’s Declaration of Independence Extends its Hand in Peace 

Israel’s Declaration of Independence expresses constant, unquenched thirst for peace:

We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.