The Palm Beach Post reports on parents in Delray Beach, Fla., who think that a local shopping center is not the right place to display of a set of nude, bronze sculptures — even if they are meant to depict the flight of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
…The set of three larger-than-life bronze sculptures at the entrance to Addison Plaza in suburban Delray Beach sit just across from Morikami Park Elementary School. They depict the flight of African Jews fleeing war-torn Ethiopia in 1991 to avoid an almost-certain slaughter.
The family is naked — and anatomically correct.
"It just needs to go somewhere else," said Marc Finkelstein, whose children attend the school. "This is not the art district of the world. Kids do not need to see things that are meant for adults. It’s not even realistic. It looks like a martian."
In Ethiopia, female toplessness is the norm and in some African tribes men go nude waist-down at stick-fighting tournaments to catch the eye of a prospective bride.
The sculpture entitled, "Journey to the New," by Itzik Asher has been on display at the Palm Beach International Airport, Mizner Park and the Kravis Center before it was placed at the entrance to the Addison Shops on Jog Road south of Linton Boulevard. The Israeli-born Asher, who also has a home in Boca Raton, was commissioned to craft the sculpture depicting the Israeli military mission to fly Ethiopian Jews to Israel, dubbed Operation Solomon, by an American Jewish organization in 1993. …
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