Zoya Cherkassky’s Collection Judaica: Immigration and the “Making Strange” of Jewish Art

This essay analyzes Zoya Cherkassky’s early project, first presented in 2003, titled Collection Judaica (Kolektziyat yudaikah). I examine Collection Judaica not only in relation to Jewish art history, but also in the context of immigration studies. Collection Judaica aimed to explore Jewish self-perception “through an antisemitic gaze.” By means of defamiliarization (ostranenie), Cherkassky enables her viewers to feel a strong sense of alienation, as experienced by immigrants, from common Jewish practices. Her combination of Jewish and antisemitic visual materials complicates the attempt of creating “pure” Jewish art by stressing the visual danger and unattainability of such efforts.