LOX WITH BLACK BEANS & RICE
April 27, 2010
LOX WITH BLACK BEANS & RICE: PORTRAITS OF CUBAN JEWS IN SOUTH FLORIDA
From the opening night reception for the exhibition, the audience is welcomed by Executive Director Marcia Jo Zerivitz, Dr. Isidoro Morjaim (part 1), Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz and exhibition photographer, Randi Sidman-Moore (part 2).
The Cuban Jewish community in South Florida began with the 1959 communist revolution in Cuba; most Jews fled and started new lives. The 30 large format candid photographs by Randi Sidman-Moore include brief oral histories. They reflect the daily lives and life and holiday cycles rituals of a people and how they are different or similar to the larger society. These "Jewbans" are examples of diversity within one cultural landscape.
About 12 years ago, Miami photographer Randi Sidman-Moore was on a trip to Israel when she ended up in a bus with Cuban Jews from Miami. ''They had me in tears they were so funny,'' the photojournalist recalls. "The other Jews were so quiet, but they were having a party on the bus. They introduced me to the whole subculture.'' Sidman-Moore says she knew immediately that she wanted to explore the lives of Cuban Jews, to tell in photographs the story of what makes them different from other Jews, and different from other Cubans. The project took five years to complete, funded with grants from the Palm Beach Community Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Florida Atlantic University, which first exhibited the photographs.
Sidman-Moore, who grew up in New York, studied photography at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy. She moved to Florida in 1995. Her work has appeared in Elle, Life, Time, Cosmopolitan, Ocean Drive and The Miami Herald.
From the opening night reception for the exhibition, the audience is welcomed by Executive Director Marcia Jo Zerivitz, Dr. Isidoro Morjaim (part 1), Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz and exhibition photographer, Randi Sidman-Moore (part 2).
About 12 years ago, Miami photographer Randi Sidman-Moore was on a trip to Israel when she ended up in a bus with Cuban Jews from Miami. ''They had me in tears they were so funny,'' the photojournalist recalls. "The other Jews were so quiet, but they were having a party on the bus. They introduced me to the whole subculture.'' Sidman-Moore says she knew immediately that she wanted to explore the lives of Cuban Jews, to tell in photographs the story of what makes them different from other Jews, and different from other Cubans. The project took five years to complete, funded with grants from the Palm Beach Community Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Florida Atlantic University, which first exhibited the photographs.
Sidman-Moore, who grew up in New York, studied photography at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy. She moved to Florida in 1995. Her work has appeared in Elle, Life, Time, Cosmopolitan, Ocean Drive and The Miami Herald.
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