Jewlia Eisenberg embodied the values of the Bay Area Jewish arts community. Through her magnificent performances, scholarship, and social activism, her love of Judaism shined. Equal parts performer, singer, warrior, activist, and more than a bit of glitter-diva thrown in, she was a larger than life personality and her presence will be dearly missed.
The CJM has been a fan of Jewlia’s work from its beginning. The inaugural sound installation in The CJM’s Stephen and Maribelle Leavitt Yud Gallery included Jewlia’s composition, “Heavenshow,” written for John Zorn Presents the Aleph-Bet Sound Project. From 2008 though early 2009 Jewlia’s music—along with other notable musicians like Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, and Terry Riley, all of whom composed original songs inspired by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet—resounded in the Yud.
Jewlia was to return to the Yud in 2021, culminating a two-year project developed in collaboration with The CJM and funded by the Creative Work Fund. Fierce as Death was a musical and textual exploration of the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. This spring Jewlia was to set up a tent on Jessie Square Plaza to engage passersby in Havruta-style Talmudic study through a queer perspective. The study would develop into cantorial song and then would culminate in a visual experience inside the Yud Gallery.
The CJM often reached out to Jewlia to participate and she never turned us down. Whether performing at an Out of Order Seder , giving a lecture in Goldman Hall, or singing at a ten-year anniversary kick-off, she showed up to perform for our crowd. It demonstrated the love she had for The Museum and its community. Love that was shared in return.
Not only was Jewlia a brilliant musician gifted with an incredible voice, she was dedicated to knowledge, choosing projects that challenged her to study and uncover forgotten or overlooked histories, and then using the performances as vehicles to teach. When she and Jeremiah Lockwood performed in the gallery at The CJM's exhibition Jewish Folktales Retold: Artist as Maggid, she began each song with its history and a historical anecdote about protest music. For her, every performance was an opportunity to improve the world.
Jewlia's personal and artistic life was a gift. The CJM is proud to have had her incomparable talents grace our stages. She was funny; she was vivacious; she was a wonderful human being. We are deeply saddened that she is no longer with us to light up our lives with her fiery intellect, kindness, and beauty. May her memory be a blessing.