From Outliers to Kosher Pop Art, a new look at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education * Oregon ArtsWatch

"Rebekah Sobel, executive director of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education - she dares you to pronounce the acronym, OJMCHE - is betting that a forthcoming display of works by an impressively bearded guy known as " The Top Dog of Kosher Pop Art " will entice new visitors as well as returnees. Steve Marcus, a Hassidic rabbi who works out of New York's Lower East Side, creates quirky, often comical folk art that celebrates Jewish life."

""Joy!" Sobel exclaimed during an interview in her museum office. Then she switched to her more serious museum-director mode and said: "Transformational, that's the word we use here." Or, to be even more museum-director-like: "Taking history and infusing an exploratory identity." After a 25-year career in a series of different museums, Sobel, 53, took over at OJMCHE just days after longtime director Judy Margles retired in December, 2023."

Rebekah Sobel leads the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and is presenting a Judaica-themed psychedelic skateboard exhibit by Steve Marcus. Steve Marcus is a Hassidic rabbi from New York's Lower East Side who produces quirky, often comical folk art that celebrates Jewish life and American-Jewish culture. Sobel described the exhibition as joyful and transformational and emphasized taking history and infusing an exploratory identity. Sobel moved from the East Coast after a long museum career, managed an extended commute during a family transition, and recently settled with her children in Northeast Portland.

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