Dear friends and colleagues;

We are pleased to update you regarding the status of Katz’s performative project in Kensington
Market, each hand as they are called:

As many of you know, The Koffler Centre for the Arts dissociated from Katz and the commissioned
project in early May, 2009 because of her political work for Palestinian human rights, and
subsequently sent a defamatory press release across the country, falsely claiming that Katz supports
the extinction of the State of Israel. Since late May, we have been in legal negotiations with the
Koffler about moving forward with the project and we have now reached an agreement. While the
specific terms of this agreement are confidential, we are happy to continue discussions about our
experience and understanding of the Koffler “dissociation” as well as the project itself.

Simultaneously but independent of our legal negotiations, the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) Board of
Directors has been involved in internal discussion, as well as in consultation with the Koffler about
their decision to dissociate as well as their professional and ethical conduct. The TAC has determined
that the Koffler was in violation of the City of Toronto’s non-discrimination policy regarding an
individual’s right to freedom of political association. As it is not TAC general policy to release public
statements regarding such matters, for a more detailed statement regarding the decision, the TAC
invites you to contact Executive Director Claire Hopkinson directly at Claire@torontoartscouncil.org.
It is our understanding that while the TAC will not be withholding funding from the Koffler, they have
approached this situation in a productive gesture of stewardship. This includes working non-
punitively with Koffler around issues of anti-discrimination policy development, transparency of
mandate, curatorial and board structure, as well as accountability and eligibility where public funds
are concerned. We are heartened by the TAC’s official acknowledgement that Koffler violated Katz’s
right to freedom of association, and by extension violated one of the terms of the City of Toronto’s
public funding. We are sincerely encouraged and hopeful about the TAC’s strategies for addressing
this matter.

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that we will soon share details about the presentation of a revised
version of each hand as they are called, to be presented in Kensington in the fall of 2009. We
consider this presentation a positive outcome of a very difficult situation, and look forward to seeing
you at the exhibition. We also encourage continued personal and public dialogue around
Israel/Palestine and the role of cultural institutions in relation to discussion and dissent. The events of
these last few months have embodied the extreme need for such dialogue in all our intersecting
communities, and we are deeply thankful for the threads of discussion arising from the support,
suggestions, and questions you have offered.

Please contact us for further information on each hand as they are called, and check out our website
for continued regular updates. www.eachhand.org

Reena Katz, artist
Kim Simon, curator

Thursday, June 4, 2009
Dear Ms. Starr and Ms. Filip:

…I find the Koffler Centre’s position strangely intransigent for an institution that supports the arts and ideas in the city. I also find the characterization of Ms. Katz’s position highly reactionary and inaccurate. The press releases relating to the exhibit conveys that Ms. Katz advocates the end of Israel, and in particular the end of Israel as a Jewish state. Ms. Katz is a highly critical and intelligent individual, who demands that we ask serious questions and not assume that, even for the Jewish people, Israel as it stands is the correct answer.

As for “Israel Apartheid Week” it is overly simplistic to state that those who organize it call for the end of Israel. The term “apartheid” as uncomfortable as it may be, has been applied to Israeli policies of separation and discrimination by a broad range of well-respected individuals including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Meron Benvenisti and former US President Jimmy Carter, to name a few. In her letter to the Toronto Star, Ms. Starr states that Israeli Apartheid Week “promotes historically inaccurate comparisons between contemporary Israel and apartheid South Africa”. That is clearly the perspective of the Koffler Centre, however, the afore-mentioned Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who of all people should know the effects of apartheid in South Africa, said after visiting Israel and the Occupied Territories in 2002: “I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about….”

But the point is not whether the Koffler Centre agrees with that perspective (as undoubtedly it does not), but rather the fact that Ms. Katz’s views on Isreal — which are indeed, shared by many others — are a reason for her artistic project to suffer. It is also a shame, because Ms. Katz and her work represent the best of the discussion and exploration of ideas, and the Koffler Centre’s decision is a painful stifling of just such openness in this city…

Thank you for your kind attention.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Dear Lori Starr,

…I am an artist and I had a solo exhibition at the Koffler a number of years ago. For many years the Koffler Centre has done an excellent job of balancing the needs of the community that uses the centre with an arms length policy with the exhibition content of the gallery. This recent letter makes it clear that this balance has been completely lost.

Reena Katz’s association with the Israel Apartheid Week has nothing to do with her proposed exhibition. Freedom of expression and association is a cornerstone of a democratic society. A principal that is necessary to uphold if there is any hope for dialogue and discussion between groups with different beliefs and opinions. Moreover, as an artist I feel very strongly that freedom of expression without fear of reprisal is necessary for the creative process.

I was recently invited by Mona Filip to participate in the final exhibition at the current space. I was very excited about the possibility of creating a site-specific work. In light of your recent letter I am withdrawing from the exhibition. I am quite upset at the position you have put me in. I cannot support an organization that has in effect censored an exhibiting artist based on her personal associations. However by withdrawing from the exhibition it is in no way a statement of my views of the state of Israel, one way or the other. Here in lies my concern. You have polarized a situation that required dialogue and subtlety not blunt, inaccurate rhetoric.

You have shown a shocking lack of leadership in this matter, unnecessarily creating an environment of distrust, frustration and anger.

Wednesday, May 13

It is with deep regret and sadness that I am submitting my letter of resignation as a member of the board of the Koffler Centre for the Arts and as a member of the Art Advisory Committee. As an artist and an educator, I strongly disagree with and cannot support the action taken by the the Koffler board and the UJA Federation. The decision to disassociate the Koffler from the artist Reena Katz and the exhibition /each hand as they are called /compromises the principle of freedom of expression and jeopardizes the integrity of the project.. The exhibition is a celebration of the roots and legacy of Jewish history and culture in Kensington Market. Reena Katz’s political views are separate from the aesthetics and content of the exhibition. I cannot continue to work on behalf of an organization that blurs those boundaries between an artist’s political views and the content of artistic work. This kind of action is particularly unfortunate as it ignores the views of many others in the larger community.

Dear friends, supporters and colleagues,

As our situation with Koffler Centre of the Arts continues unresolved, we offer this brief update on the status of the Reena Katz exhibition each hand as they are called:

While we have made every attempt to present the exhibition as originally intended, with numerous logistic delays and the fact that Baycrest Centre Geriatric Care – an essential and valued collaborator in the project – has withdrawn their participation, we are prevented from moving forward at this time.

Our request to meet with the Koffler board of directors has been rejected and the question of silencing discussion and diverse voices within our communities remains.

While it is with great sadness that we announce the exhibition will not be opening to the public on Wednesday, May 20th as originally scheduled, we continue to work towards the presentation of each hand as they are called.

The incredible support that we have received from cultural workers, administrators, organizers, academics, and the media has been the inspiration for our desire to continue moving forward. Your writing, calls, and critical discussions are greatly appreciated and act as a place marker for the original spirit of the project.

We will continue to share updates as they happen, and please visit our website for any information: www.eachhand.org

Sincerely,
Reena Katz, artist
Kim Simon, curator

Attention: Lori Starr,

Executive Director, Koffler Centre of the Arts

Dear Ms Starr:

We are deeply disturbed to read the Koffler Centre of the Arts “Statement on Reena Katz: each hand as they are called” and your decision to disassociate with this committed and talented young Jewish artist and her upcoming community-based exhibition in Kensington Market due to what you claim in your press release as her “public support for and association with Israel Apartheid Week”. We are equally disturbed to read that a public statement of disassociation has been issued by the Koffler Centre based solely in relation to Reena Katz’s political affiliations and associations – associations with countless other concerned social citizens and activists including countless numbers of Jews both in Israel and abroad who oppose human rights abuses and stand in solidarity with Palestinian peoples and are speaking out against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories.

We strongly believe that your published statement is a highly political act which serves to discredit the artist and her work and the validity of the political views and the opinions she may hold as a Jew, an artist, and a social citizen. Such an act undertaken by the Koffler Centre of the Arts attempts to censor Reena Katz and her cultural production, artistic voice, freedom of speech and freedom of association. Such an act of disassociation also denies the obvious reality that Jews are as heterogeneous, politically diverse, richly complex and widely varied as any other cultural group. Such an official and public act of disassociation by a cultural organization that receives generous funding from the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, puts into high relief that the deeply seated and rigid political beliefs held by representatives of the Koffler Centre of the Arts are thought to give license, by that same group to exercise power without accountability to either the very diverse Jewish community you represent and are expected to serve, or the larger public, or the publicly-run and publicly-accountable funding bodies that support you.

… As artists and educators we ask you to live up to your mission, “to be moved, be challenged, befriend.” We challenge you to put these words into action. We also ask you not to forget that without dialogue, without dissent, without diversity, without remaining open, without providing your constituents their own right to hear different perspectives in order to allow each person to come to their own conclusions, regardless of how vehemently others may object to those opinions, you will have failed those you are charged with serving. The disclaimer that you have in place would seem to allow for such dissent: The views expressed by any artist in any exhibition or public forum are their own and do not represent the views of the Koffler Centre of the Arts, its Board, and its affiliate organizations.

“the intellectual is an individual endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message a view, an attitude, philosophy or opinion to, as well as for, a public. And this role has an edge to it, and cannot be played without a sense of being someone whose place it is publicly to raise embarrassing questions, to confront orthodoxy and dogma (rather than to produce them), to be someone who cannot easily be co-opted by governments or corporations, and whose raison d’etre is to represent all those people and issues that are routinely forgotten or swept under the rug. The intellectual does so on the basis of universal principles: that all human beings are entitled to expect decent standards of behavior concerning freedom and justice from worldly powers or nations, and that deliberate or inadvertent violations of these standards need to be testified and fought against courageously.”

Representations of the Intellectual, Edward W. Said (1994)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Dear Ms. Starr, Ms. Filip:

…It is high time that we recognize Zionism for what it is: an ultra-nationalist, nineteenth-century ideology that has led to a great deal of suffering for the idigenous peoples of the Middle East. Indeed, it is not even clear that Zionism has led to true emancipation for the Jewish people or that it was the most humane or rational response to centuries of bigotry and anti-semitism in the west. Adherence to Zionism ought not to be regarded as a litmus test for one’s political acceptability.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Dear Ms. Starr, Ms. Filip:

…On many occasions, I have had the pleasure of dialoguing with Reena Katz around issues of Palestine, Israel, Zionism and activism. I have learned a great deal from these exchanges and from her cultural work. The Koffler Centre’s statements about her activism and her political positions simply do not reflect my experience of Reena’s views, and can only be seen as disingenous, disrespectul and slanderous.

Severing connections from the artist because of her political principles sets a frightening precedent that is not mitigated by your decision to continue financial support. Not only have you violated the mandate of the Arts Council that funds the Centre, but you have severely damaged the Koffler’s credibility as a site for contemporary art and culture.

…This damage to the Koffler Centre’s credibility is serious – your decision has sent a wave of shock and disapproval throughout the Canadian academic community. Your credibility will only worsen unless you take action immediately to rectify matters. I strongly urge you to reconsider your rash and misguided action, issue a public apology to Katz (and curator Kim Simon), and grant Katz the meeting she’s requested with the Board of Directors as soon as possible.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Dear Ms. Starr & Ms. Filip,

I wonder if you could clarify the present position of the Koffler Centre. Does it only associate itself with artists who support Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestine and approve of its long standing policy to ignore international human rights conventions? If so, are all the funders of the Koffler Centre, including Canadian taxpayers, made aware of the centre’s positon?

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Dear Ms’s Filip and Starr,
…The Koffler Centre’s desire to distance itself from the Katz project given its disavowal of the BDS campaign is understandable, however, the manner in which this has been conducted speaks to the sneaky and anti-democratic nature of the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has entered the public consciousness in this country. Your organization has every right to disagree with Ms. Katz, but given that the artist’s point of view is a matter of public record you cannot seriously be surprised without revealing something about the inadequacies of your selection process. It would also be deeply revealing if your organization opted to withdraw support of some artists and not others based, not on artistic merit, but on their political beliefs. Perhaps this would be more honest, but it would also give the lie to your organization’s claim to support “the arts” instead of “some arts over others”.

…Artistic expression is not something that can be sanitized of unpopular or uncomfortable truths. To pretend that the Jewish community is somehow unified on the question of Israel is utterly irresponsible and in essence silences the very real concerns of members of your own community at the behest of those who disagree.