Circumcision, by Jackson Pollock or what is in a name

I am not at all a bit fan of Jackson Pollock and very often I am not in the mood for his works. Very often I found his paintings disturbing, emotionally disbalanced and not easy to grasp. 

I visited though recently an exhibition presenting his works and surprisingly I stopped in the front of a work of him that I was not familiar with, Circumcision. Finished in 1946, the painting is considered by the art critics as a moment of independence from Picasso. The painting is following different directions, without a center. Each area has its own importance, given by the strong touch of the brush. Signs that reminds of the primitive art, such as eyes or arrows are spread over the surface of the canvas. While I was usuccessfully looking around the painting over and over again trying to make a connection between the name of the painting and the content, I fell in love with the special combination of colours, the gold yellow and the sweet salmon pink spread between the big patches of blue and light white. But at the end of my visit at the exhibition, I was not advancing any inch of knowledge towards finding the traces of the circumcision.Why Pollock, who grew up in a presbyterian family chosed this title?

Intrigued, I continued my search online trying to find some special art critique interpretation. Thus, I realized how void I was, obsessively trying to connect the title with a hidden meaning. Things were in fact much easier than expected. The title 'Circumcision' was suggested to Pollock after the painting was ready by his wife, Lee Krasner. An interesting painter herself, she was born in a Jewish-Russian family that emigrated to United States. Her connection to Judaism was not very manifested but it surged again in this moment of creative inspiration. 

Meanwhile, I am still trying to understand this painting

Elul 5772

Elul comes after the dark month of Av and still keeps the shades of the suffering and distress.

A short overview of the events that took place in the month of Elul shows how before the change many dramatic changes could take place.

And only if I try to think about some of the events of the last days, according to the media news, I cannot stop thinking about the difficult beginning that stays before us:

The anti-semitic attack on the college campus in the US. As usual, it is still difficult to see American as a hotbed of hate, but the zahav medina for Jews was only in my imagination. A couple of seconds ago I've read that the Orthodox Rabbi of Berlin was charged for defending circumcisions.

A recent anti-semitic attack in Berlin, a place where the Jews discussed a lot lately about what the meaning of a circumcision ban.

The news of the inevitable eviction of Migron

In between many other news and dangers. The challenges aren't new, the opportunities change always.

1 Minute for Munich

1 minute for 11 people killed by Palestinian terrorists was refused by the International Olympic Committee. Predictable? Maybe. Acceptable? Never. 

Meanwhile, there are many things that do not make sense lately, in a Europe that apparently lost the sense of its reasons:

- Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization

- After Germany, some hospitals in Austria and Switzerland decided that will not allow circumcisions and the European rabbis fear that the craziness can spread further. I've read today an article in the English edition of the German Der Spiegel where it is said that 'Circumcision for Non Medical Reasons is wrong' outlining that some Muslims demonstrated some 'willingness' in this issue. 

- The terrorist attack in Bulgaria where innocent people on vacation were killed by apparently people close to the organization that Europe refuse to consider terrorist. 

It is good to know that we will be always here. But sometimes it is hard to cope with the whole hate.