Bracha Zisman-Cohen

Palestinian-Israeli artist Raida Adon navigates questions of identity and belonging through her art. Her search for a place to call home takes her from Israel to Paris, where she confronts new perceptions of her complex identity.

When fans of the football club of Beitar Jerusalem make their way to Teddy Stadium, they hardly ever notice Nadia as she enters and makes her way to a classical ballet studio beneath the bleachers. The ceiling trembles, the cheering fills the room, but the studio remains isolated from Jerusalem's reality. A decade ago Nadia and her mother, Nina Timofeyeva, a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet, left Moscow for Jerusalem and set up the studio. It was a professional suicide. Ballet and football make for a surrealistic combination.

"Anusim" - They are everywhere - Ultra-Orthodox Jews. They cannot be identified. Within them there is a struggle between the inner truth and the outside world. How did they become "Anusim"? Why are they and not others? The common line is a basic requirement in Orthodox society. You have to be 'someone' to take a step that takes you out of the line you were born into. Anusim are talented people, often with a rebellious personality. Years of research often make us indifferent to human encounters, not in this case.

Palestinian-Israeli artist Raida Adon navigates questions of identity and belonging through her art. Her search for a place to call home takes her from Israel to Paris, where she confronts new perceptions of her complex identity.

Palestinian-Israeli artist Raida Adon navigates questions of identity and belonging through her art. Her search for a place to call home takes her from Israel to Paris, where she confronts new perceptions of her complex identity.

When fans of the football club of Beitar Jerusalem make their way to Teddy Stadium, they hardly ever notice Nadia as she enters and makes her way to a classical ballet studio beneath the bleachers. The ceiling trembles, the cheering fills the room, but the studio remains isolated from Jerusalem's reality. A decade ago Nadia and her mother, Nina Timofeyeva, a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet, left Moscow for Jerusalem and set up the studio. It was a professional suicide. Ballet and football make for a surrealistic combination.

"Anusim" - They are everywhere - Ultra-Orthodox Jews. They cannot be identified. Within them there is a struggle between the inner truth and the outside world. How did they become "Anusim"? Why are they and not others? The common line is a basic requirement in Orthodox society. You have to be 'someone' to take a step that takes you out of the line you were born into. Anusim are talented people, often with a rebellious personality. Years of research often make us indifferent to human encounters, not in this case.