Draft:Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem

Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem שושנה גוגנהיים קדם (Cincinnati, OH 1969) is an American and Israeli interdisciplinary artist, Torah scribe, and curator living in Portland, Oregon USA. Using a feminist perspective Gugenheim Kedem focuses her work on Jewish ritual practice and institutions.

Education
Gugenheim Kedem holds an MFA in Contemporary Art Practice / Art & Social Practice, Portland State University, June 2020.

Work
As an artist working in the Social Practice movement, Gugenheim Kedem engages in large scale collaborations. In traditional Jewish law, as holy texts written by women are considered unkosher, very few women are trained as scribes. In response, in 2007 Gugenheim Kedem created Women of the Book, a collection of 54 weekly Torah portions completed by different female artists from around the world. As one of the first female Sefer Torah scribes Gugenheim Kedem took five years to complete a Torah along with a community of other female scribes. This project The Women's Torah Project seeks to create space for the female experience and body within a traditionally male practice. For another collaborative project Gugenheim Kedem co-founded and as of 2024 co-directs the Greensboro Contemporary Jewish Museum in North Carolina with Adam Carlin.