Are we living in a Jewish artistic renaissance?

To painter and critic Richard McBee, Jewish artists are embracing Jewish content and themes with nearly-unprecedented enthusiasm.

Reaching for a metaphor to approximate the Jewish artistic renaissance he observes underway, N.Y. artist and writer Richard McBee’s mind settles on fungi.

“It’s a bit like mold, growing and spreading in unexpected places, mostly ignored because it’s slightly disgusting to normative Jewish sensibilities,” McBee said. “Like mold, it’s really hard—if not i…