Found treasures, Myth and Midrash: Jo Milgrom’s “Cherubim”

The figures in Jo Milgrom’s assemblage sculpture “Cherubim” relate symbolically to the hybrid creatures of the ancient Near East whose mythic function was to guard access to the temple of the pagan gods.¹ In Exodus 25, two winged cherubim of hammered gold are described as being placed upon the cover over the Ark: “ The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. They shall confront each other, the faces of the cherubim being turned toward the cover.” (Ex. 25:20)

For Milgrom, however, the Cherubim are removed from direct association with the Holy Ark. Instead, they personify “a prayerful face-to-face connection with God, independent of any cultic regulation. If we return to the original symbol of the cherubim as guardians of access to the Divine, we could think of this pair as opening the gates and letting us in.”

Milgrom’s earliest experience of Jewish learning came through her mother in the form of the birkot hanehenin, the sensory blessings made over food, drink and scents. According to her, the name indicates a path by which the five senses of human life connect one to the source of blessings.

“These blessings are gender inclusive,” Milgrom declares.

My brother and I learned them together. They grounded me and centered me. They never engendered an image of God or any notion of punishment or appeasement. I was connected to this nourishing divine source as if by an umbilical cord, an imaginary axis mundi or “vertical connection.” . . . It was never a question of “do you believe in God?” The better question was “do you experience God?” My affirmative answer to that question is the essence of my learning, and subsequently, of my teaching into my ninth decade.

Milgrom, who coined the phrase and brought the notion of “visual midrash” into popular usage, developed a teaching mode that emphasizes the “experiential.” She aims to teach “the whole person, not from the neck up, to incorporate head, heart and hand.” Regarding her teaching method, the late Eduardo Rauch, co-director of the Melton Research Center at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, wrote:

The question for the educator always is: How should I teach this idea so that it will become part of and even transform my students, and in the interaction perhaps even I will be profoundly affected. Dr. Milgrom experiments with this ideal by using an approach that goes well beyond the common intellectual way of teaching the biblical text. The powerful metaphors embedded in the text are resonances of our very natures and experiences. If we can find a way to make that deep living connection between the narrative and the most meaningful aspects of our personal experience, something very important can happen.²

Jo Milgrom in her Jerusalem home, surrounded by her art and her extensive collection of “ found treasures.” Photo: Judith Margolis

Milgrom constructs her art from discarded materials, sometimes gathered from the street and salvaged from rubbish bins, but often by repurposing Jewish ritual objects that have been retired from their original worship function. These assemblages, with their exploitation of irrational juxtaposition and evocation of nostalgia, suggest the influence of Surrealism, with all the attendant spiritual and psychological associations. For example, the faces in “Cherubim” are made up partially of radiation masks used in treating cancer patients. Milgrom acquired these masks, she told me, at the time that her scholar husband, the late Jacob Milgrom, was being treated for cancer, allowing, perhaps, insight into the artist’s intention to evoke a powerful healing trope, in addition to the work’s “God connection.”