Re’eh (רְאֵה — See)
Deuteronomy 11:26–16:17 • Isaiah 54:11–55:5
Moses invites Israel to choose between blessing and curse by remaining faithful to the covenant. The haftarah responds with a promise of consolation: Zion, tested yet never abandoned, receives the announcement of a reconstruction even more solid than its past.
Isaiah 54:11
עֲנִיָּה סֹעֲרָה לֹא נֻחָמָה הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי מַרְבִּיץ בַּפּוּךְ אֲבָנַיִךְ וִיסַדְתִּיךְ בַּסַפִּירִים
“O afflicted one, storm‑tossed and unconsoled, behold, I will lay your stones with antimony and set your foundations with sapphires.”
Above the northern Arsenale in Venice, storm‑tossed [1], a synagogue floats. Presented at the Venice Biennale [2] by the artist Anna Kamyshan [3], in collaboration with the Museum of Jewish Montreal, the work, titled Nabatele [4], is part of the Yiddishland Pavilion [5], a project conceived as a space for memory and transmission of Yiddish culture.
It is a double‑membrane helium balloon that evokes the old wooden synagogues of the Eastern European shtetls, most of which were destroyed in the twentieth century. It can rise up to twenty‑five metres above the lagoon. The whole structure rests on a suspended rock, without any terrestrial anchoring. The illuminated windows evoke the ner tamid [6].
In the Venetian ghetto, synagogues were concealed behind the façades of residential buildings. Here, by contrast, the floating structure—between sky and sea, in precarious balance—is visible from everywhere.
Kamyshan’s gesture situates the work within a contemporary reflection on exile, reconstruction, and transmission. The installation thus materializes a cultural belonging that depends on no territory [7].
[1] Installed on the evening of 16 July, the installation was closed for maintenance following the severe storms of 17 July; the official site then announced a reopening within about ten days.
[2] The 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale runs from 16 July to 16 September 2026.
[3] Anna Kamyshan is a Ukrainian artist and architect based in London, who identifies as having Jewish heritage.
[4] A word formed from nabat, a Ukrainian and Russian term (наба́т) meaning “alarm, tocsin, alert call,” to which the artist added the Yiddish diminutive ‑ele.
[5] The Yiddishland Pavilion is an independent project founded in 2022 by Maria Veits, a curator and researcher based in London, and Yevgeniy Fiks, an artist born in Moscow and based in New York. Their work focuses on the history of Yiddish culture and Jewish political thought.
[6] The perpetual light present in synagogues in memory of the Sanctuary’s lampstand (Exodus 27:20–21). Anna Kamyshan adopts this symbol of permanence to evoke the transmission of the inner light of Jewish culture.
[7] The curators, Maria Veits and Yevgeniy Fiks, describe Nabatele as embodying Yiddishland: the work gives concrete presence to a belonging that depends on no territory.