Art exhibition celebrates Canadian Jewish Heritage Month at the Calgary Military Museums: May 1 – 31

Alysa-Beth Engel, “Jacobs, Spiegel and Bennett Also Served.” 2021. Digital Collage. (Part of the “She Also Served” Exhibit at the Military Museums in Calgary from May 1 – May 31, 2022.

(Calgary) – A special art exhibition celebrating May as Canadian Jewish Heritage Month will be held at the Calgary Military Museums. The opening reception of ‘She Also Served: Jewish Canadian Servicewomen in the Second World War’ will be held on Sunday May 8 at 2 pm at the Military Museums. The event will be livestreamed at live-ucalgary.ucalgary.ca/she-also-serves/exhibition. 

Image: Razieh Alba, Bittersweet: Esther Raber, 2021 Digital Print.

The artworks featured in this exhibition reveal the little-known stories of nine of the more than 250 Jewish women who enlisted in the Canadian Military during the Second World War.  These servicewomen proudly served their country despite Canada’s “none is too many” Jewish immigration policy that was in place at the time.

The nine artists are all women, reflecting on the important contributions that marginalized groups can make for the benefit of all.  Artists include Bev Tosh an internationally exhibited artist and daughter of a war bride,  Anne Petrie a former CBC broadcaster-turned-artist and Lily Rosenberg the daughter of Bulgarian Jewish survivors of the Second World War.

The artworks explore the servicewomen’s experiences, such as Cecilia Feingold’s work in army intelligence and span the Canadian Navy, Army and Air Force.  She Also Served also highlights a wide range of artistry including collaged archival photographs, oil painting, digital prints, and paper cutting.

She Also Served helps visualize a larger research project profiling Jewish Canadian servicewomen’s stories in an online website: https://live-ucalgary.ucalgary.ca/she-also-serves. A digital version of the exhibition can be viewed on the She Also Serves website.

Image: Razieh Alba, Bittersweet: Esther Raber, 2021

The exhibition is curated by Jennifer Eiserman, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Art History and Saundra Lipton, Librarian Emerita, University of Calgary. It has been made possible through funding from the University of Calgary and support from The Military Museums.