During research on Chana Orloff’s sculpture from 1919, a photograph was discovered in which she is recorded together with another woman and a young man (and probably another person who took the picture) in the living room of her home. They look smiling, relaxed and smartly dressed for going out together. The photo ignited Sophia Berry’s curiosity, which led her on a detective journey and research for its traces. Many questions arose: Who are the other people in the picture? Where and when was it filmed? Under what circumstances? What are the works hanging on the walls? And who is the photographer whose figure is absent from the picture but nevertheless present in the photograph? Join us to get some answers to “Chana Orloff and the Case of the Mysterious Photo”.

Since 2016, Sophia Berry has been working as an Assistant Curator of Modern Art at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMA). Currently, she is on a two-year sabbatical in Denver, CO. Her position at TAMA includes responsibilities of managing exhibitions from our collections and external loans, researching the Museum’s collections, overseeing outgoing loans, writing catalogue texts, and leading restoration projects. Sophia’s latest project was a special exhibition of works by Amedeo Modigliani in honor of the centenary of his death. Sophia has also curated a special display dedicated to Joseph Israel’s From Darkness and Light (1871), which was recently discovered to have been Jewish property before the War.

CSP Partners: Beth Israel (San Diego, CA), Brotherhood Synagogue (Gramercy Park, NYC), Congregation Adath Jeshurun (Elkins Park, PA), Congregation Beth Shalom (Seattle, WA), Congregation B’nai Tzedek (Fountain Valley, CA), Congregation B’nai Israel (Tustin, CA), Jewish Collaborative of Orange County, Shomrei Torah Synagogue (San Fernando Valley, CA), Temple Bat Yahm (Newport Beach, CA), Temple Beth David (Westminster, CA),Temple Beth El of South Orange County (Aliso Viejo, CA), Temple Beth Emet (Anaheim, CA), Temple Beth Ohr (La Mirada, CA), Temple Beth Tikvah (Fullerton, CA), Temple Beth Shalom (Needham, MA), Temple Beth Sholom (Santa Ana, CA), Temple Emanuel (Newton, MA), Temple Judea of Laguna Woods, CA, The Boston Synagogue (Boston, MA), Town & Village Synagogue (NYC, NY), University Synagogue (Irvine, CA), Valley Beth Shalom (Encino, CA) & Walnut Street Synagogue (Chelsea, MA)