St. Catharine’s participates in StArt 2020 Exhibition
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,46 JANUARY 24-30, 2020 BTR
Action
Association
Three St. Catharine Academy
students were among the
approximately 90 high school
students who had their work
exhibited at the StArt 2020 Regional
High School Art Exhibition
at Concordia College in
Bronxville, New York.
Thirty-one private and
public high schools from the
Bronx, Westchester, Rockland,
Orange and Fairfi eld Counties
participated in the exhibition.
Goals of the exhibition are to
give high school students an
opportunity to showcase their
work in a professional gallery
and to build their credentials
and portfolios for college.
Students from St. Catharine
Academy who participated
are Shima Binmahfood,
Elizabeth Diaz-Pilier, and
Adriana Garcia-Ellis.
Elizabeth Diaz-Pilier’s
painting, ‘Road Chosen,” is inspired
by graffi ti. The paint-
ing represents the indecisiveness
of a person choosing
a road or a path in life, and
represents how she began to
choose her path upon graduation,
the Marine Corps. Using
Gelli print, she explored techniques
of light and darkness,
the pro’s and cons of a path.
“Ultimately I made my decision,
said Elizabeth, and I am
glad that I did. This piece was
done to show the fi rst stage of
my path to success.”
Shima Binmahfood has always
enjoyed art and recognizes
it as a way of showcasing
her creativity. The idea for her
piece, ‘Dark Refl ections,’ was
inspired by a photograph she
took on a rainy day. “I aimed,
she said, to illustrate the refraction
of the water droplets
through the background of the
tree branches passing directly
through it. Although the raindrops
grab the viewer’s attention
from the background, the
background image is still refl
ected through the water refraction
of the raindrops.”
Adriana Garcia Ellis’s
‘Mirror Mirror,’ is a self-portrait.
“I have always been interested
in the art fi eld,” said
Adriana, who also writes
poetry and plays the violin.
“My art is usually created
to show my technical skills
and how I perceive the world
around me. Overall, in any
form, I use my art to express
myself, teach, and open other
people’s minds to a world of
artistry.”
St. Catharine Academy offers
a comprehensive visual
art program where students
may take three years of art.
The curriculum includes introduction
to art, drawing and
painting I and II, advertising
design, fashion design, photoshop,
and culminates with
(L-r) Adriana Garcia Ellis, Elizabeth Diaz-Pilier, Shima Binmahfood, and art
teacher Deborah Ross, before the SCA student exhibition.
Photo courtesy of St. Catharine Academy
AP Studio Art 2-D. In recent
of Visual Arts, Fashion Institute
years SCA graduates have
pursued studies at the School
of Technology, and SUNY
Purchase.
BY FRANK VERNUCCIO
In the wake of a horrifi c
machete assault in Monsey,
New York on a rabbi’s home,
the state’s governor, Andrew
Cuomo stated: “This is a national
phenomenon that we
are seeing. It is frightening
and it is disturbing. If anyone
thinks that something
poisonous is not going on in
this country, then they are in
denial frankly…”
The words are appropriate,
but they were also a
study in hypocrisy. The governor
is a leading standard
bearer of the Democrat Left,
a political movement which
openly espouses anti-Israel
and anti-Jewish views.
In New York State’s Hudson
Valley, Rep. Antonio Delgado,
(D-NY) has blasted Israel
with false accusations.
He has not been rebuked by
his party. Consider also former
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew
Gillum, who was the
Democrat candidate for governor
in Florida. Gillum is a
staunch supporter of groups
that push the anti-Israel
Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The Obama Administration
opened the door to both hardleft
policies and anti-Israel
sentiments, dramatically replacing
America’s support
for both Israel and moderate
Arab states with support for
Iran and the Moslem Brotherhood.
A study by the AMCHA
Initiative found that “Israel
related harassment increased
by 70% from 71 in
2017 to 121 in 2018. Antisemitic
acts involving the singling
out of Jewish and pro-
Israel students and groups
for personal vilifi cation more
than doubled, with a tripling
of expression falsely implying
these students or groups
are linked to ‘white supremacy.’
Antisemitic acts involving
the unfair treatment of
Jewish and pro-Israel students
or attempts to exclude
them from campus activities
more than doubled, with expression
calling for the total
boycott or exclusion of Zionist
students or expression
from campus life nearly tripling.”
The anti-Semitism of
prominent members of the
Democrat Party is illustrated
by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (DMich.)
and Rep. Ilhan Omar
(D-Minn.), who, among other
biased acts, posted an anti-
Semitic political cartoon. A
Daily Mail article .noted that
the cartoon’s illustrator, Carlos
Latuff, is known for creating
anti-Semitic images.
Jonathon Marks, writing
for Commentary magazine,
notes that “Democrats…
seem determined to hold on
to those who do Jews harm.”
The bias against both
Jewish individuals and the
Jewish state has reached an
unprecedented level within
the Democrat Party. Nation
of Islam head Louis Farrakhan
has compared Jews to
termites, and his history of
ties with former Democrat
National Committee Deputy
Chair (and current Minnesota
Attorney General) Keith
Ellison is undeniable.
But it doesn’t end there.
The new anti-Semitism is
broader than the traditional
ethnically-based hatred that
history is all too familiar
with. It contains the seeds
of the broader Progressive/
Left’s disdain and hatred for
all religion. A devotion to
religious principles means
that individuals see a higher
power than government, a
belief that the Left, which
places the power of government
on a solitary pedestal
above individual rights, cannot
tolerate.
The problem is not surprising.
As the Democratic
Party moves towards socialism,
it takes on the traits historically
common to socialist
regimes. The Soviet Union
was anti-Semitic from its inception.
The trait was at the
core of the National Socialist
(Nazi) regime of Hitler’s
Germany. An Adam Smith
study found that “Anti-Semitism
has formed a key part
of Chavismo, Hugo Chávez’s
political ideology, and is now
maintained by Chávez’s successor
Nicholas Maduro.
From the early days of his
presidency, Chávez targeted
Venezuela’s small Jewish
community with abuse and
sought to push them out of
Venezuela. This was despite
the absence of any anti-Semitic
tradition in Venezuelan
culture, which was always
welcoming towards its Jewish
population. When Chávez
came to power in 1999, 30,000
Jews lived in Venezuela.
Now only an estimated 5,000
remain after two decades of
persecution.”
Many Americans may be
unaware of the Leftist Democrat’s
growing bias against
Jews because key information
outlets refuse to cover
the problem.
While left-leaning Twitter
goes to great lengths to
fi nd excuses to censor conservative
leaning writers,
it refused to object to Farrakhan’s
tweet comparing Jews
to termites.
Hope all had a Happy New
Year, may it be a healthy one
for all. The Legion is now trying
to take care of the payment
of dues online for the membership
to cut down on paperwork.
I strongly urge all members
to create an account with
MyLegion.org, that way you
can pay your dues directly to
national either annually or
on a recurrent yearly basis.
For our younger members
this should not be a problem,
our older members may have
no access to a computer. For
that reason we will still accept
dues at the post, and forward
them on to department.
The American Legion
is now open to all that have
served honorably, regardless
of dates served. If you know of
veterans out there invite them
down and let them see what we
are about, we have great posts
around the neighborhood
that would love to have them
aboard.
That’s all for now. We are
stronger as one, let’s work together.
God bless America.
FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION CALL (718) 260-4593
/MyLegion.org