On Thursday 9th June, UJS hosted our third annual art exhibition, entitled “Reflection – Young Jewish Identities in relation to Israel, through Art and Creative Writing”.  Around 100 community members and students joined us in this celebration of 13 student artists, from 10 campuses throughout the UK, who presented their works.

Incubator is the UJS Israel Engagement flagship programme in support of the arts. Incubator gives students the platform to explore their Jewish identity and personal relationships with Israel through artistic expression and nurtures talent by working with these students to prepare projects for the annual exhibition. Students are free to create any original work that they want with support and funding from UJS and UJIA, along with educational seminars throughout the programme.

This year, students heard from artists including Rutie Borthwick, Guy Shoham, Liron Weissman and Eve Grubin and Robin Moss, the head of Israel Engagement for UJIA, led sessions exploring Israel and Jewish Identity.

The programme culminates with the exhibition where works included photographs, sculptures, and a fashion show. The exhibition featured our first spoken word performers of the Incubator programme, a 3D installation that streamed the live sounds from the Kotel and a poetry collection.

Incubator Participant, Brianna Sommer, said:

"I am so appreciative of UJS and UJIA for giving students the incredible opportunity to explore our creative, creative passions and share our personal Jewish identity as well as our connection to Israel, together with many other creative minds.”

UJS Israel Engagement Officer, Emanuele Boccia, said:

“The Incubator programme is unique because of its incredible participants who come from so many different backgrounds and have produced so many different types of work. Having student artists, photographers, fashion designers, sculptors, and so on, all together in one room is not something you see everyday. It also teaches us that we can positively engage with our Jewish Identities and relations to Israel through many different perspectives and each relation is unique in its own way.”

Head of the UJIA Centre for Israel Engagement, Robin Moss, said:

"The UJS Incubator, funded and supported by UJIA, is a brilliant programme. It combines deep engagement with Israel and Jewish identity with the incredible experience of seeing these students move from having creative ideas to creating their personal, powerful works. The show was well-attended and the students were the stars of the show. UJIA is proud to be involved with this unique programme."

UJS Incubator is delivered in partnership with the UJIA and Jewish Agency. UJS would like to thank the community for joining us in this celebration of students’ talents. A final congratulations to our student artists on an inspired exhibition.