In her own statement, one of the artists, Kate Laster, wrote: “As Jews, we refuse to allow any justification, any weaponization of our generational trauma, or to give our consent to normalize apartheid. There is power in refusal — it’s a form of honoring rebellion and imagining what cultural arts ecosystems could be like beyond zionism.”

The other artists who signed the statement are Micah Bazant, Lita Berdugo, Jules Cowan, Rebekah Erev, Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt, Steph Kudisch, Ava Sayaka Rosen, Sophia Sobko, Arielle Tonkin and Irina Zadov. (Not all of them had work that was accepted into the show.) They said they plan to stage their own exhibit of artwork by anti-Zionist Jews living around the world.

California Jewish Open, the first of its kind at CJM, has been in the works for more than a year. Strauss was approached to serve as guest curator for the exhibit, which asked applicants how they are “looking to the many aspects of Jewish culture, identity, and community to foster, reimagine, hold, or discover connection.” She selected the pieces in a variety of media, out of more than 500 submissions, and chose their thematic groupings, while Rabben communicated with the artists and coordinated logistics.

“We see this exhibit as a chance to reflect what’s on the minds of artists today,” said Strauss, who serves as the artistic director of LABA Bay. “There’s a lot of support for Palestinian human rights among artists, as there is among those of us working on this show, and we weren’t going to ignore that.”

The pieces most critical of [Zionism’s neocolony] were withdrawn, she said, but there are other pieces that engage with the [extermination of Gazans].

“When we talk about connection, we have this sense that it’s a sweet, kumbaya thing, but connection is fraught,” she said. “All of the pieces in this show have something to teach us about ourselves as individuals and a community right now.”