Community Blog Journey Through Sacred Time in Deborah Feinstein’s Visual Holiday Cycle
This spring, Hebrew College welcomes viewers into the living rhythm of Jewish time with “A Journey of Wonder: A Visual Dance with the Hebrew Holiday Calendar,” an immersive exhibit by artist, curator, and educator Deborah Feinstein. The collection invites visitors to encounter the holidays as a cycle of mixed media compositions inspired by the illuminated manuscripts which have helped people tell their sacred stories throughout history.
An experienced museum director and art historian with graduate degrees in Jewish Studies (from Hebrew College) and Islamic art, Feinstein brings both scholarly depth and devotional attention to this body of work. Jewish and universal symbols meet and overlap; text and image juxtapose each other with thematic resonance. Traditionally styled calligraphy weaves beauty with content, an artistic rendering of the richness of Jewish learning as a textual tradition. “Like me, Deb is dealing with the way time passes, by using the calendar as a structural starting point,” says artist and Hebrew College Spring 2026 Gala award recipient Joshua Meyer. “I love the way she explores the ideas that are important to her through this combination of imagery and letters. Some of her images look very much like a page of Talmud, with different pieces referring to others.”
The multiplicity of media parallels the multiplicity of meaning within each holiday and each image: historical, agricultural, spiritual, communal, personal…Feinstein does not reduce observances to a single theme; instead, she allows tensions and harmonies to coexist on the page. Color, material, and placement are never incidental. People populate the bottom of the High Holiday compositions, oriented toward divine imagery floating above. Gold paint catches light to suggest the radiance of sanctified moments set apart from ordinary time, while bold contrasts speak to the drama and joy of pilgrimage festivals.
Viewers are invited to search for significance in the accumulation of motifs across the cycle: recurring symbols, subtle textual references, and visual echoes from one holiday to the next.
Whether experienced sequentially, as a journey through the year, or encountered individually, each work stands as both a moment and part of a larger whole. This mirrors Jewish time: each festival is its own complete observance, yet their place in the cycle is part of their meaning.
As Feinstein prepared the cycle for exhibition and display, she felt an urge to write about her motivations and provide context about the imagery in her compositions. What emerged was a manuscript informed by her education in art history and Jewish studies, part artist statement and part guided tour. “I wrote each text page to accompany the visual in order to see how many ways one can enter sacred time and space. Through color, poetry, symbols, history, music and text, we can all find some partners for our dance through life.” Feinstein gathered the 18 plus one mini essays with photo reproductions of each image, wrote an introduction and conclusion, and partnered with the Hebrew College marketing department to self-publish the exhibit’s companion volume, A Journey of Wonder.
For more than 25 years, Feinstein served as a museum director and educator, including as Director and Curator of the Holyoke Museum, and as an educational consultant for major exhibits. She has lectured on the visual arts as a meeting ground for the religious, historical, and cultural currents of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Her artistic practice is inseparable from her love of learning and teaching. She is the chair of Hebrew College’s Arts Committee and serves on the Board of Trustees. As Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld reflects, “Deborah’s devotion to learning, to the arts, to the College all flow from the same source: her deep love of Torah and her desire to be a part of making Torah come alive — whether through words, deeds, or her own visual artwork — in our own time and for generations to come.”
In “A Journey of Wonder,” the Hebrew holiday cycle becomes a visual dance through memory and story, obligation and joy. Through layered imagery, calligraphy, and color, Feinstein invites us to see the year not as something that simply passes, but as a sacred text we inhabit — season by season, page by page.
This exhibit will run March 29–August 14, 2026 at Hebrew College.
Exhibit Opening: Sunday evening, March 29, 2026 at Hebrew College
Exhibit Opening: Sunday evening, March 29, 2026 at Hebrew CollegePlease join us for the exhibit opening of our spring art exhibit “A Journey of Wonder: A Visual Dance with the Hebrew Holiday Calendar” with works that celebrate and correspond with the Jewish calendar cycle by artist Deborah Feinstein, chair of the Hebrew College Arts and trustee of the college. The evening will include a special signing of Feinstein’s recently-published companion book A Journey of Wonder, and a celebratory performance by Hebrew College Artist-in-Residence Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer `14, Rabbi David Fainsilber `14, and Hebrew College musicians. Refreshments will be served. Learn more and RSVP