This High Holy season we are grateful to welcome artists and activists Yael Kanarek & Gili Getz. Their respective works will be on display at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center throughout the High Holy Days.
yael kanarek
Yael Kanarek is an Israeli-American artist and the founder of BeitToratah.org, an initiative that regenders the Hebrew Bible by centering women in the sacred narrative and locating men within the domestic sphere. Through this work, she expands Biblical Hebrew from within the language itself, using its feminine forms to create new possibilities within foundational stories.
Her ongoing creation of the Toratah library includes regendered translations of Biblical books, public learning, and collaborations with educators, artists, and spiritual leaders. Last year, she introduced ZimraTah, a collaborative album of songs drawn from Toratah’s language, produced by Naomi Less, Lab/Shul co-founder. Together, these works challenge long-standing interpretive assumptions and propose a Torah that speaks to a broader humanity.
Kanarek’s artistic practice informs her textual work. Trained as a visual artist and fluent in Hebrew, she bridges sacred language and contemporary art, treating the act of regendering as both creative methodology and cultural intervention. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Biennial, The Jewish Museum, and SFMOMA.
She teaches, writes, and presents widely. Alongside Toratah, Kanarek maintains an active studio practice and designs fine jewelry.
Websites: www.yaelkanarek.com, beittoratah.org, kanareknyc.com
Instagram: @yaelkanarek
Wikipedia: Yael Kanarek
artist’s statement:
My work begins with a question: what happens when we shift the frame through which we encounter something we think we already know?
For the past decade, I have been creating Toratah, the Regendered Bible, a rewriting of the Hebrew Bible in which every human character changes gender while the narratives remain intact. Matriarchs inherit the covenant, lead nations, receive revelation, and wrestle with the Divine. Men move into roles traditionally assigned to women. The shift is simple, but what it reveals can be profound.
I approach sacred text as an artist—as inherited material that is alive, generative, and capable of transformation. Regendering the Bible is not an attempt to replace Torah, but to place another Torah beside it, allowing the space between them to become visible. In that space, assumptions loosen and new possibilities emerge.
For me, Holy Shift describes this movement: the moment when something familiar turns slightly and suddenly we can see what had been hidden in plain sight.
Lab/Shul feels like a natural home for this work because it approaches Jewish tradition as something living—something we inherit, question, remake, and practice together. In 2019, during SoulSpa, Lab/Shul was the first community to bring Toratah into ritual through an aliyah to Toratah. That moment mattered deeply to me: the work moved from the page into communal sacred practice. Lab/Shul’s willingness to hold reverence and experimentation side by side creates exactly the kind of space in which Toratah can be encountered as a creative act from within Judaism.
I find holiness in that act of creation—in a tradition alive enough to transform.
gili getz
Gili Getz is an Israeli-American photojournalist, actor, and peace activist. He is best known for his extensive documentation of Jewish American political activism and is a regular contributor to Jewish and Israeli media. His photography has been featured by numerous organizations, publications and books including in the new bestseller The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land by Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon.
He also wrote and performed the play The Forbidden Conversation and executive produced the award winning film Israelism, both of which explore generational tensions within the American Jewish community over Israel/Palestine. This year, he is the recipient of the distinguished T’ruah Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award for his work on Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Gili serves as the president of American Friends of Combatants for Peace, a binational Israeli-Palestinian movement and is the vice president of Partners for Progressive Israel. Following October 7th and the war in Gaza he co-founded Israelis for Peace, advocating for the freedom, safety, dignity and humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians.
Website: giligetz.com
Instagram: @giligetz
artist’s statement:
It is such an honor to be an artist fellow with the Lab/Shul community for the High Holidays this year. On my Jewish journey, I have experienced deep Jewish spiritual connections through Lab/Shul rituals and events. Judaism that deepened my faith and my peace work. I experience Judaism at Lab/Shul that is free and alive. It’s inclusive, creative, and deeply connected—a beautiful expression of the Judaism I want to see more in the world.
So grateful for, and deeply appreciative of, all the Lab/Shul staff and ritual leaders who make these sacred and meaningful connections possible.
A few of the deeply profound moments I got to experience and capture with Lab/Shul over the years:
Celebrating the first Shabbat of the new Jewish year with Lab/Shul through an extraordinary Jewish-Muslim Sufi ritual at Judson Memorial.
The epic reading of The Book of Mordecai" (Yael's Regendered Book of Esther). At the PPPPPPurim 2020 celebration.
Hoshanah Rabbah and the annual unscroll of the entire Torah. Outside. Connecting to the earth on Shmita year (sabbatical for the earth - give the land a break).
On Kol Nidre Yom Kippur eve with the Lab/Shul community with my friends and partners for peace Aziz and Maoz who spoke at the end of the service about how Oct 7th and the war brought them closer together in a profound commitment to the path of peace building and to each other.
All-Faith Atonement Vigil Rally for Justice and Peace on Yom Kippur outside of the ICE offices calling for dignity, equity and justice for all who seek shelter and safety in this land.
Rabbi Amichai speaks to the Israeli bloc of the anti-occupation protest outside the hotel where Netanyahu was staying during his visit to New York City.
The joint leadership of Standing Together at the CBST Shabbat service. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum embraces Rula Daood.
Palestinian activist Rana Salman and Israeli activist Eszter Korányi, co-executive directors of the binational movement Combatants for Peace, at the annual Joint Memorial Ceremony in Jaffa.
Photographer Credit: Gili Getz
About My Rabbi
Throughout the judicial coup in Israel and after October 7, Rabbi Amichai was not only a friend and a guide, but a Jewish leader who refused to participate in the binary “us vs. them” politics demanded of us.
He supported our Israeli community in New York as we insisted on holding the full humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians. He supported our efforts to build trust and partnership, spoke clearly against killing, occupation, and war, and promoted the work of peace activists coming from the Holy Land.
I will forever be grateful for his friendship and leadership when it mattered most.
About My Work
The photography exhibition Ossim Shalom explores my journey in America after October 7 in search of spaces that hold the full humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians. The work emerged in response to an increasingly binary political culture shaped by deep and ongoing violence, trauma, grief, and dehumanization.
Holy Shift
My photography and activism are grounded in a vision and a belief in a future in which all people, from the river to the sea, in America and around the world, live in freedom, safety, and dignity—free from systems of oppression, violence, and hate. I’m guided by the Jewish values of B’tzelem Elohim, Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof, and Tikkun Olam.
A future and a path that is being manifested now, out of the horror and pain, and one that we can all take part in creating.
In the face of overwhelming destruction, killing, and mass dehumanization, we have an opportunity to birth another reality from the ruins. My work is meant to highlight what that shift can and does look like.
That reality is already being manifested in the world—in communities and movements that can inspire, model, and teach us that another way is possible. A different future is not only something we can imagine, it is something we need to build. It is a shift that has already begun.