Embroidery, Clothing, and Feminine Identity in Jewish Yemen
Lecturer: India Hayford
Dates:
Saturday, January 9, 2021 1PM Eastern
Sunday, January 10, 2021 1PM Eastern
Attendance is limited to 100 participants on a first come, first serve basis.
Nothing identifies or disguises us as quickly as the clothing we wear. How we dress reflects our place in the world and how we want other people to perceive us. Nowhere has clothing and its embellishment been more important to identity than among the Jewish women of Yemen. When they were forced to abandon their national costumes and traditional wedding dresses during the 1949-1950 airlifts of Jews out of Yemen to Israel, they left behind precious symbols of regional, familial, and personal identity. Upon arriving in Israel, they saw their embroidery and traditional costumes ruthlessly adapted and modified by a country bent on creating a single national identity for Jews returning from the Diaspora following World War II. In the process, Yemenite Jewish women lost a significant portion of their own identities. Come join us for this photograph filled discussion.
