Tu Ke Bivas, "May you live, grow, and thrive like a little fish in freshwater"
An immersive experience at the Kniznick Gallery by photo-based artist Becky Behar
September 4 to September 18, 2025 | Kniznick Gallery
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Women's Studies Research Center are pleased to present photographer Becky Behar's Tu Ke Bivas in the Kniznick Gallery, an immersive presentation in which Behar traces Sephardic traditions enacted by her mother and daughter.
"Tu Ke Bivas is part of a Sephardic blessing my parents often invoked: ‘May you live, grow, and thrive like a little fish in freshwater.’ I am a Sephardic Jew, part of the diasporic population expelled from Spain during the Inquisition in the late 15th century. My family’s migrations have taken us from Turkey to Colombia to the United States. Throughout, we have maintained our Ladino language, Jewish religion, and Sephardic customs.
My photographs explore how my mother and daughter continue to enact these traditions and rituals today. As I contemplate their different ways of preserving and celebrating our history, I consider my own relationship to this heritage and what interpretations my daughter will carry forward." - Becky Behar
BECKY BEHAR is a photo-based artist born in Colombia and now living in the suburbs of Boston. Behar has exhibited at national and international galleries including a pop-up 
exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), and solo exhibitions with Kniznick Gallery (Waltham, MA), The Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA), Workspace Gallery (Lincoln, NE) and Concord Free Public Library (Concord, MA) where she was an Artist in Residence. Her group exhibitions include the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (Providence, RI), Photographic Resource Center (Cambridge, MA), Woodmere Museum (Philadelphia, PA), and FotoNostrum Gallery (Barcelona, Spain). Behar’s work has been featured in A Photo Editor, Float Photo Magazine, Fraction Magazine, The Boston Globe, Jewish Boston, and What Will You Remember?.
Behar has received multiple acknowledgements for her work, including being a Photolucida Critical Mass top 200 finalist (2020), a finalist for the Griffin Museum of Photography John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship (2020) and was an awardee with the 16th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers (2021). Behar’s most recent honors include a Concord Cultural Council Grant (2022), and a Combined Jewish Philanthropies Grant (2023). She is currently a scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center where she conducts research to develop her photography portfolios.
Upcoming Event
Becky Behar, "Tradisyones Orales (Oral Traditions)", 2021, Archival Pigment Print
September 18, 2025
7-9 pm | Kniznick Gallery
Enjoy a live performance of Sephardic music by guitarist, composer, and educator Ira Klein, and a final experience with Becky Behar’s Tu Ke Bivas.
IRA KLEIN is a Brooklyn based guitarist, composer, and educator from Jerusalem. Specializing in Middle-Eastern music, American folk, and music for dance, he seamlessly combines a lifelong passion for musical traditions with a love of experimentation.
A recipient of numerous awards from foundations such as LABA New York, J Arts Boston, and Mass Cultural Council, Klein has appeared on NPR, WBGH, CBC, Jewish Renaissance, Haaretz, and Americana UK. He has performed with world-renowned artists including McArthur Fellow Claire Chase, saxophonist Neil Leonard, and guitarist Kevin Barry (Jackson Browne), and served as a music curator for Intentional Beauty, the Judaica gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Klein has been invited to present visiting talks and clinics at Berklee, Harvard, Yale, Bard College, Berkeley Carroll School, and the Somerville Public Library. He holds degrees from Berklee College of Music and Bard College, and is a certified K-12 educator.