Exhibitions are becoming an expanding element of the programme at JW3 in Finchley Road.
The community centre has announced three art displays which will be staged in its building and piazza next month.
Moments of Expulsion (June 4-28) will showcase the work of Jo Scorah, whose sculptures explore the emotional impact of conflict and displacement.
A descendant of Syrian Jews forced to flee Aleppo in the 1920s because of persecution, the artist draws parallels between the breakdown of culture and community her grandparents experienced and the current migration crisis.
In Higher View: From Aleppo to Jerusalem (June 6-18), Ezri Tarazi explores the history and cultures of his native Jerusalem, incorporating his family’s journey from Aleppo.
Running from June 4-18, The Giant Dolls’ House is a collaborative arts project, comprising a collection of single-room dolls’ houses created inside empty shoeboxes.
The shoeboxes are joined up by ropes, ladders and ramps to form a community, reflecting the diversity of every individual’s expression of home.
They follow JW3’s current exhibition, Holocaust By Bullets, which highlights the efforts of Father Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest, whose Yahad-In Umum organisation identifies sites of Jewish and Roma mass executions during the Second World War.
Father Desbois flew in especially from Iraq — the basis of his next project — for the exhibition opening.
“It’s so important to teach Holocaust today as a crime for the new generations,” he stressed.
Raymond Simonson, JW3’s chief executive, said the centre hitherto had “little opportunity to exhibit visual art. We’re really excited about thinking of new ways to include artists and designers in our projects and to offer the Jewish community intelligent and stimulating exhibitions.”
