Private Story
Three Times a Week (2021-2022)
(2021 - 2022)
Three times a week, during the hottest summer months of July and August, the separate (gender-segregated) beaches in Israel open their doors to the community of Jewish ultra-Orthodox women. Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays become colorful and enjoyable female gatherings, where men are prohibited and women and their children can bathe in accordance with their religious beliefs and strict rules of modesty. These beaches are partitioned on three sides by either sheets of white cloth or permanent fencing. Beaches where a group of rabbis come every year to determine they are indeed kosher and modest.
The series presents an inside view of a closed society maintaining its leisure culture in a public area and also reveals the transformation that the beach goes through during the year - from a mixed open beach to a beach fenced off by rules. This contrast raises issues of cultural relativism and questions about the idea of freedom.
The separation, and the clear boundaries between the sexes in ultra-Orthodox society, bring into question the woman's place as a separate gender, and awareness of female needs in the field of leisure. Today, as there is more awareness of the issue, ultra-Orthodox women also feel the need to leave the house and enrich themselves emotionally and experientially, without male supervision or external interference. This recreation at sea, on the separated beach, is an example of moments when women empower themselves and appreciate their own space.
The blessing of the great sea is a blessing in which one expresses his admiration for the size of the sea and blesses God for his creation. "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the world who made the great sea."
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