Updated, Aug. 1
Artists, musicians, and members of the Island’s Jewish community gathered at the Jewish Culture Festival in West Tisbury last week, organized by Vineyard Chabad.
The event, in its second time running since its inauguration last year, brought together about 700 people. Tickets were sold out a week before the event. Headlining the musical performance was Matisyahu, a globally recognized Jewish-American musician.
Inside the festival, a number of white tents housed several exhibitions, showcasing paintings, jewelry and other forms of art. Families mingled, and friends reconnected. People danced, laughed, and dined on Jewish cuisine from around the world.
One longtime Islander, Barney Zeitz, was among the 10 featured artists, displaying his award winning glass, metals, and drawings within the group. The work he featured at the festival followed along his core themes of peace and unity.
For Zeitz, the event presented an internal conflict that seems to offer some profound insights for the wider Jewish community, which is struggling to grapple with and discuss the war in Gaza.
“I brought my Psalms piece,” he said, lifting up a framed glass rectangle with glittering red and green figures against a textured blue background. “It’s from a Psalm that says, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.’”
The piece includes a loose string of outlined figures in dance-like movement, a visual representation of music and culture. Being in a cultural dance about 40 years ago to the song “Chichester Psalms” by Leonard Bernstein served as partial inspiration, Zietz said. “It’s really powerful, and very beautiful,” he said about the music.
But Zeitz also said he was conflicted about appearing at this year’s festival. “I was there to show my art, and my art is about community. I felt good about myself being there, but it was complicated,” said Zeitz.
He said he had some ties to a group of about 10 protesters who set up outside the festival, in attending several of their weekly meetings.
Part of a larger group called Ceasefire M.V., these protesters — many Jewish Islanders themselves — held signs calling for the liberation of Palestine.
Their intention, they said, was to stand in protest of the funders and performers of the event who’ve demonstrated support for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in their brutal military campaign against Hamas in Gaza after Hamas’ horrific attack of Oct. 7, which killed 1,200 Israelis and still holds 111 of 250 hostages. The IDF’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has been harshly condemned by the international community for killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, including women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Zeitz said he’s attended meetings with Ceasefire M.V. for months, in order to “connect, dig a little deeper and educate” himself. He said the group watches documentaries and talks about them to understand “truthful and honest” Jewish history.
“I go to these meetings, and I’ve seen at least seven documentaries. It’s all things I wasn’t aware of, really what happened and the real history,” Zeitz said about attending the group’s meetings. He said that he’s been able to begin “educating himself” overtime, and has even reconnected with a Palestinian friend of his to “apologize for being ignorant.”
Although connected to the Ceasefire M.V. group, when asked to attend this year’s Jewish Culture Festival and showcase his work, Zeitz accepted. He said he was unaware of their presence demonstrating at the festival, since he said he had missed several prior meetings.
Zeitz said he had also fallen blind to a point of protest for the small group outside: headlining performer Matisyahu, a Jewish-American reggae singer and global touring musician who has been criticized for his staunch support of the Israel Defense Forces, including its ongoing campaign in Gaza.
Talia Weingarten, among the protesting group, said they were there demonstrating outside the event partially in response to Matisyahu’s presence.
“We are here to reject the presence of someone who performs and fundraises for the Israeli Occupation Forces and the AIPAC lobbying group, condones violence against the Palestinian people and land in the name of Jewish safety, and denies ongoing genocide, as an extension of our Jewish values,” said Weingarten.
But Rabbi Tzvi Alperowitz, head of Vineyard Chabad, said the choice to bring Matisyahu had “nothing to do with Israel.”
“It’s a Jewish culture festival so Matisyahu is the ideal choice and selection for such an event,” said Rabbi Alperowitz. “It’s a secular audience. Matisyahu is that perfect bridge between music that is well known around the Island, but yet has a Jewish twist and has a traditional and spiritual side to it.”
Weingarten and other protesters still felt it necessary to criticize the choice to bring Matisyahu to the event. She said that Matisyahu has made violent comments about Palestinians.
“We are here according to Jewish values and following in the footsteps of longstanding Jewish social justice traditions,” Weingarten said. “Acknowledging the cost of Israel’s 76 year occupation of historic Palestine and the ongoing conflict and violence unfolding in Israel and Palestine is inherent to what it means to be Jewish and to gather in this time. There can be no real Jewish safety or sacredness that rests upon the subjugation of the Palestinian people and their land.”
Inside the festival, small tables spread across the field and many paused to connect with one another and share a moment with Rabbi Alperowitz. Celebration could be heard past the actual grounds, and music lasted for several hours, well into the evening.
Some people inside the festival were aware of protesters outside, although none seemed outwardly affected. Celebration continued with no extensive disruption.
Alperowitz, when reached at the festival, said he hadn’t actually seen protesters, but heard about them from some festival-goers.
“I do not believe that protesting Israel is antisemitic, but I do believe that doing so outside a Jewish Culture Festival might be,” Alperowitz said. “I talk not of individuals, but rather of the actions they performed and how they were perceived.” He spoke to The Times after the event, clarifying a comment he had made about protesters being “antisemitic.”
The protestors remained across the street, as requested by police, and did not cross over to the festival grounds. Ceasefire M.V. or M.V. for Palestine, the group at which Zeitz occasionally attends meetings, holds weekly vigils at Five Corners on Sundays.
Shortly after about 7 pm, Matisyahu performed at the festival.
“It was great, he had a beautiful voice,” said Zeitz about his performance. He said he wasn’t able to leave his booth to watch the performance, but he could still hear the music from afar.
Zeitz said he wasn’t sure how to feel about Matisyahu after hearing about his somewhat controversial reputation. Although his general policy, and ultimate reason for showing up at the festival, is that he “really just likes people.”
“I was just being there as the only Jewish artist here that has done large public work,” said Zeitz about his appearance at the festival.
Zeitz said he’s contributed his art to much of the Island’s Hebrew Center, with multiple commissions. He described the glass windows he created and the Jewish symbols which were incorporated into the creation.
While getting to showcase a variety of his work and his major contributions to the Island community, Zeitz said it was fine with him that no pieces were sold at the festival. In that case, about 10 percent of profit potentially would have gone to Vineyard Chabad, organizing the festival. “It’s less complicated. I’m not taking money, or giving money to anything,” he said.
Along with Zeitz, several other artists showcased their work at the festival. Elizabeth Sutton, displaying her painting and even demonstrating live painting, was happy to be there as part of the Jewish community.
Yet when asked directly, Sutton said she felt the protesters were “disrupting a cultural celebration about being Jewish.”
Even still, she continued connecting with customers and showcasing her work throughout the event. She said her main themes follow Jewish culture and female empowerment, and she also focuses on art therapy as a form within her work.
After about four hours, the festival came to a close. Alperowitz said he was glad a group of diverse people on the Island were able to celebrate Jewish culture.
Zeitz, satisfied with his decision to display his artwork amongst the Island’s Jewish community, said he is set to come back to Ceasefire M.V. meetings on Mondays to continue connecting with and learning from the group.
This post was updated to accurately reflect a comment made by one of the protestors.
