Jacqueline Nicholls

Jacqueline Nicholls is a London-based fine artist, and Jewish educator, who uses art to explore and challenge traditional Jewish ideas. Nicholls uses an amalgam of media — including drawings, print, embroidery, tailoring, paper-cutting, knitting, and more — to expand the Beit Midrash beyond its textual origins. Her current project, Draw Yomi, responds to the daf yomi cycle with a daily drawing that engages with the Talmudic texts.* She also co-ordinates the Art Studio program at JW3, a new art and community venue in London, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2 Pause for Thought.

Jacqueline Nicholls, pen & ink drawing, detail from “Shabbat 156, drawyomi series,” 2013.

Faith and Practice

A Woman’s Freedom: Ten Plagues, to the Tune of “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" (For the Third Night)

By Jacqueline Nicholls

What would it take for women to be free? All women — all ages, born as women, chosen to be women, or just born of a woman and know that the divine female is in us all and is calling to be liberated. What would it take for us all to be free?

I am writing this in a busy cafe, Nina Simone is singing serendipitously in the background, “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.” You and me both, Nina….

The Ten Plagues of Egypt have been compared to birth pains, necessary contractions in order for a new nation to come to life. READ MORE

Arts and Culture

Counting the Omer by Drawing

By Jacqueline Nicholls

This year’s project began with a scratch of an idea. In preparation for Sinai, the receiving of the Torah, I wanted to explore what it means to hold on to something.

Arts and Culture

Maybe this Month

By Jacqueline Nicholls

We run Maybe this Month, by Jacqueline Nicholls, in Eul because it is a work of outer and inner examination. Nichols’ piece is created from niddah cloths, used by women to check whether they are able to go to the mikveh after their monthly menstrual cycle.