Saddest Day

Photo of black Star of David on a gray background (with a sad Jew inside it) is courtesy of my favorite graphic designer, Jenni Gottschalk. 

Five misfortunes befell our fathers ... on the ninth of Av. ...On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. -Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6

Copyright: Jenni Gottschalk 2007

Portraits of Holocaust Children

Photo is courtesy of artist Julie Baer who created a series titled 

souls: portraits of Holocaust children

Copyright: Julie Baer 2007

Julie Baer, Nuthatch

Photo of White Breasted Nuthatch with Stars of David on the upper corners of the painting is courtesy of artist Julie Baer, New Jersey-born children's book author and illustrator.
2001, 18" x 14", mixed media gouache on wood.
On her website I read that 

Viewing nature as a gate to the spiritual realm is a thesis running through my work. 

Copyright: Julie Baer 2007

Hexagram Encircled by an Ouroburous

Shari sent me a link to an interesting illustration of an Indian hexagram encircled by an Ouroburous inside two interlaced squares. The link leads to a Web Page dedicated to Ganesha. The six pointed star is the geometric emblem of Ganesha, the Indian god with the elephant head.

Hebrew letters

Photo is courtesy of artist Aviva Beigel.
Title: Hebrew letters.
It contains many local Israeli identity symbols, like the Magen David, Menorah, dove; the Hebrew slogan: Israel Is Beautiful; Chamsa, the word: the wall…

Copyright: Aviva Beigel 2007

Sabra

Photo is courtesy of artist Aviva Beigel .
Sabra is the title of one of 30 boards, each 30x60 cm, which comprise a series called This Is How You Build A Wall. Sabra contains many local Israeli identity symbols, like the Magen David and the year of the Israeli Indipendence.

Copyright: Aviva Beigel 2007

Six

Photo is courtesy of artist Aviva Beigel
Acrilic on wood
55x40 cm
A green Star of David with an image of a human being on each point - for the six milion Jews that were killed through World War II.
Copyrights: Aviva Beigel 2007

This work is taking part in the Yellow Holocaust Star Exhibit at Yigal Alon House, Safed, which started on 30-4-2008. Curator: Reli Wasser.

Technique: Mosaic and mix media on wood.

The Yellow Patch is going through transformation, it changes its color to gold.

Gold appears in the mosaics of the Early Byzantine Art as a color of holiness. In my work it signifies the holiness of Jewish people that were murdered in the Holocaust Each one of the figures standing on the Magen David symbolizes one million Jews.

The wall in the background is a reminder to the " Wall" in Jerusalem, the ultimate symbol of Judaism

Aviva Beigel Lives and works in Tel-Aviv.

Painting, sculpture, ceramics and mosaic.

Exhibitions in Israel and abroad.

B. A. IN Art History, groups and workshops guide in the

Tel-Aviv Museum of Art

Jewish Amazon

Photo is courtesy of artist Aviva Beigel
acrilic on wood
40x40 cm
Aviva wrote to me that it is one of four works in which she dealt with the subject of amazons as an expression of feminine power. This project has also a reference to Merlin Monroe’s four portraits (Merlin also represents feminine power), and a reference to Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, which is also encircled.
Aviva Beigel was born in 1952 and lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Copyright: Aviva Beigel 2007

Hexagram on a Muslim Coin

Solomon's seal is engraved on a rare Muslim Coin.
Courtesy of Shlomo Moussaieff, collector of Biblical archaeology items.
Copyright: Shlomo Moussaieff 2008

Stained Glass Hexagram

Christian stained glass hexagram on the window of Trinity Anglican Church, Ontario, Cambridge, Canada. Photo is courtesy of "monicaphotos" who published it on Flickr.

Stained glass window in Lincoln Cathedral, England

 CC Picture by victor408
 from Flickr

The Doll with the Yellow Star

Yona Zeldis McDonough wrote a book titled The Doll with the Yellow Star. It tells about Claudine,  a Jewish girl who lives in France during World War II. Her parents try to keep her life normal and  buy her a  doll.  After the Germans order Jews to wear the yellow star, Claudine  sews  a yellow star on her doll's cloths.

 

Rabbi’ s Seal from Spanish Inquisition Period

This is a seal of a Rabbi, in the shape of a Magen David, and it is from the Spanish Inquisition period . In other words it is not later than the 1492 Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and no sooner than 13th century, when the Inquisition was founded.
This is a very rare item but there were other Magen David items from that period, as Gershom Scholem wrote in his article about the origin of the Star of David , which was published in the Encyclopedia Judaica:

The ornamental use of the hexagram continued in the Middle Ages, especially in Muslim and Christian countries. The kings of Navarre used it on their seals (10th and 11th centuries) and (like the pentagram) it was frequently employed on notaries’ signs in Spain, France, Denmark, and Germany, by Christian and Jewish notaries alike. Sometimes drawn with slightly curved lines.

Rachel Ben Hur, Hear O Israel

Photo is courtesy of intuitive painter Rachel Ben Hur. The painting is titled “Shema Israel” [Hear O Israel, in Hebrew] which is the name of perhaps the most famous of all Jewish prayers:

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One

Rachel told me that for her this prayer is a connection to a source of spiritual power.

Copyright: Rachel Ben Hur, 2007
rbh600@walla.com
97248447489
972-522985204

Rachel Ben Hur, Kaballah

Rachel Ben Hur learned Kaballah and Kaballah-healing. "Ana Bechoach" is a Jewish prayer for healing. Rachel learned painting in Bezalel 40 years ago and started painting again only 3 years ago. In this painting she thanks the Lord for giving her the ability to create art.
Copyright: Rachel Ben Hur, 2007
rbh600@walla.com
97248447489
972-522985204

Silvisrivers

Photo of a yellow Star of David on the palm of a Jewish holocuast prisoner is courtesy of artist "Silvisrivers" from Flickr who wrote to me:

This image in fact is part of the “Wire King” series I am working on to describe to weaving emotional and existential thematic of human history that singles out peoples for terrible treatment … Its a poetic image both about “camps”, holocaust feelings, destruction and pain - but its also a “Voice” coming back out of the flames and destructions of spirit…

Silvisrivers has many works on Flickr and some of them have a Star of David. Silvisrivers is unique in combining poetry with visual art. When his visitors comment to his painting he usually answers them by writing a new poetry. For example, the above work is accompanied bt the following poem [excerpts]:

He spoke a million coloured prisms
Behind the usual bars
Of chemical prisons…
He talked of ovens
And how children were logs
From birth

One of his visitors, Jessie Doncaster, commented:

I feel like you carry the weight of the world, silvis,,,

Silvisrivers answered, later:

Put on your lead coat
And steel shoes
How can the artist
Ever talk the weight of earth
Without sliding the blue
Stetson Everest over
His own head of human bruise ....

And later:

What if the traumtised and those driven half mad by events in the SHOAH had been completely tranquillised after the events of the 2nd world war . Equally why do we tranqulise atrocities rather than hold them up for remembrance . Like a national child abuse day or a memorial to all the child abused - perhaps holding the hand the figure of the "all-abused"
Perhaps the ghost hands of the holocaust jews
Perhaps the arabs too
Perhaps the all raped
Perhaps the cornered who are bombs

On the Testimonial section of his Flickr page I found a lot of good words about his art; i.e. Stagewhisper says:

Sivisrivers wages his artist's and poet's battle against artifice, cynicism, alienation, and detachment with the weapons of words and images, not to divide and conquer, but to humanely invite his audience to forge connections- not only to others, but to their inner-most selves as well.

Copyrights:Silvisrivers 2007
P.S.
Silvis wrote to me today:

The Mental Health Arts Group I set up in North Birmingham UK is also where I and some of my colleagues practice - this-and-that-arts - sort of multi media and mixtures of getting the messages out about the human condition. We have done a film. Its about remembrance and the power of narrative building - to encourage people to bring stories back from very very difficult social contexts... An inspiration for me was Eric Freid (German Jewish poet who died in the 1980's in London - he took a small glass tube to Auschwitz and scooped up some of the "sands" there - It was not usual sand - it had bits of bones in it , remains of people .... Eric Freid - liked to repair things - rescuing things out of skips in London - like three legged chairs ...He'd make the other leg… Oh I understand that so easily …When you lose a lot family…You want so much to repair the world ... Bless him ...... Silvis Rivers

Dangerous Button

Intuitive painter, Rachel Ben Hur, sent me this photo of a yellow Star of David button and told me it belonged to her mother who lived in Bulgaria during WWII. She went to visit her husband. The train she was on was full with Germans. She was afraid that the button might indicate that she's a Jewess and tore it off. Rachel told me that in Bulgaria the yellow button was used instead of the yellow badge.
Copyright: Rachel Ben Hur 2007

Fly High

Photo of Magen David with balloons that were released to the skies of Siegen, Germany, during the Pro-Israel initiative 2007, is courtesy of "neveragain2006" who published it on Flickr and wrote to me:

The Magen David was produced with water cut technique. As you can see on the photo, it was our aim to let it fly high above our city in Siegen. We celebrated an Israel birthday party in the city. If you want more information about the pro-israel-initiative, you'll have to go on our website and then use a translation by Google.

I followed the link and saw the Star of David with the balloons in the video on this website. I also translated with Babelfish the opening excerpt:

Why we celebrate Israel’s birthday?
A public celebration for the 59 Birthday of Israel… means today far more, than expressing only solidarity in relation to the state, which nevertheless earned fully and completely our support, appreciation and friendship, as the only democracy and as the only quite-national order in the Middle East. By this celebration we express our astonishments at the fact that the Jewish people could return to the land of Israel, after centuries of being scattered among all nations, after centuries of suppressions and Pogroms, after centuries of political, religious and ethnical Anti-Semitism.

Siegen is in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, in Germany and has 100000 residents.

largest Star of David

Joshuasocean sent me a photo of 1 mile diameter Star of David that he found on Google Earth and wrote to me:

It may be the largest Star of David "symbol" on the planet. I've been googling for a larger one but so far have had no luck. It is unfinished and I don't know what the actual plan for development was.
The town is called EL JOBEAN it is part of Port Charlotte Florida. The towns name was derived from an anagram of the 1920 developers name JOEL BEAN. In the 20s there was a land boom and areas were commonly changed from anglo to spanish sounding names.
Apparently in the late 70s another developer created these hexagonal roads which form an "unfinished" Star of David. The 80s real estate bust in the area stopped the completion. Route 776 runs thru the center where there is a small park.
The actual star pattern is tilted 30 degrees. You can google maps or earth it to get a better picture.
5 miles to the south west is Rotonda a community shaped like a Giant Wheel. It may be the largest wheel shape on earth. It also has a piece missing.
160 miles southwest in the Dry Tortugas is Fort Jefferson, the largest masonry structure in the western hemisphere and also apparently the largest hexagon.

In order to see the photo you’ll have to download Google Earth and look for EL JOBEAN.

Silhouette

Photo is courtesy of Judith Weinshall Liberman who sent me the following caption:

SELF PORTRAIT OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST #133 is part of Judith Weinshall Liberman's SELF PORTRAITS OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST series. This work is 10" by 8" (25 cm by 20 cm) and was created in 1997. It is in the permanent collection of The William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, U.S.A. In SELF PORTRAIT #133 the artist is seen in silhouette behind a screen made up of yellow stars on each of which the German word for "Jew" - Jude - is spelled out. The faceless appearance of the artist behind the yellow stars is a reminder that behind the labels imposed by the Nazis were individual human beings, and the artist's bloody appearance symbolizes the millions of Jewish victims who perished in the Holocaust. The SELF PORTRAITS OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST series consists of over 150 small mixed-media works in which the artist places herself in Holocaust settings in an effort to explore her emotional relationship to the subject of the Shoah and to express her empathy with its victims.

All rights reserved to Judith Weinshall Liberman 2007

Eyes To See

Yellow Badge Photo is courtesy of Judith Weinshall Liberman who sent me the following caption:
SELF PORTRAIT OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST #4 is part of Judith Weinshall Liberman's SELF PORTRAITS OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST series. This work is 10" by 8" (25 cm by 20 cm) and was created in 1997. It is in the permanent collection of The William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, U.S.A. In SELF PORTRAIT #4 the artist's face appears on the figure in the foreground. She is seen as an old woman marked by a yellow star. The original photograph on which this work is based appears in the background. The artist's face has no features except for her eyes, which are open to see. The colors were selected to convey a feeling of doom. The SELF PORTRAITS OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST series consists of over 150 small mixed-media works in which the artist places herself in Holocaust settings in an effort to explore her emotional relationship to the subject of the Shoah and to express her empathy with its victims.

Copyright: Judith Weinshall Liberman 2007

Silence and Flowers

Photo is courtesy of painter Meir Salomon who wrote to me that the title of this painting is “blue”.
Oil on canvas.
It has flowers, a Magen David on the right side, and a Hebrew script that reads silence on the left side.

Copyright: Meir Salomon 2007
97236442310
972547449426
meirsalomon@gmail.com

palette

Photo is courtesy of Meir Salomon.
Palette – Oil on canvas. There’s a yellow badge on one side and a blue Magen David on the other. In the middle there’s a PALETTE in memory of the artists that were murdered during the holocaust.

Copyright: Meir Salomon 2007
036442310
0547449426
meirsalomon@gmail.com

Star Grass

Meir Salomon painted this Magen David made from grass together with a transparent Menorah in the background, and with flowers and butterflies.

Meir Salomon was born in 1947 in Jerusalem. He spent many years in Holand. Now he’s living in Israel. He participated in many exhibitions, mainly in Holand.

Copyright: Meir Salomon 2007
97236442310
972547449426
meirsalomon@gmail.com
http://shorashim-art.com/gallery_eng.php?CurrentPage=0&cat_id=74
http://www.ybay1.co.il/paget25.aspx?sHome=meir-salomon&pg=5209

Hava Yahav, the Colors of Creation

Photo is courtesy of painter and illustrator Hava Yahav who wrote to me that in this painting there is a cross together with a Magen David and the colors are black green red and white, which according to the Kabala were the basic colors of the creation of the world.
Copyright: Hava Yahav 2007

Kiti Levi, Blue Magen David

Photo is courtesy of spiritual artist Kiti Levi who wrote to me that she created this work in the period of the first war with Lebanon, when she felt very connected to tha Israeli state and to the Magen David that represents it.
Copyright: Kiti Levi 2007
972545938786
97288690760

Kiti Levi, Dream-Art

Photo of Magen David is courtesy of spiritual artist Kiti Levi
Kity wrote to me that she is painting what she dreams and that’s what happened also with this work.

Kiti was born in 1969. she lives in Moshav Kidron, Israel. She is married and has a child. When she was 30 years old she left her banking job an started learning alternative therapy and art. She defines her style as abstract and symbolic - I define it as Dream-Art
Copyright: Kiti Levi 2007
972545938786
97288690760

Kity Levi, Mandala

Picture is courtesy of spiritual artist Kiti Levi. It is one of many Magen David mandala paintings she created. You can see them on her website
I have the impression that Magen David mandala painting is a new trend in Israeli painting, and that more and more artists try this way of spiritual expression.

Copyright: Kiti Levi 2007
972545938786
97288690760

The Name of the Rose is Vered

Photo is courtesy of Vered Shomron Fabian who wrote on her website that her name “Vered” means “Rose” in Hebrew, and the rose is  an inter-cultural symbol of love. In this painting she tried to breathe love into her Star of David, which is tattooed in her soul

Copyright: Vered Shomron 2007

A Tattoo in My Soul

Photo is courtesy of Vered Shomron Fabian who wrote on her website that symbols affect our identities. The Star of David is like a Tattoo in her soul. Vered Shomron Fabian created a  series of drawings  of the Magen David  between 2001 and 2005 and titled it : Tattoo.

Copyright: Vered Shomron 2007

Self Portrait

Photo is courtesy of Judith Weinshall Liberman who sent me the following caption:

SELF PORTRAIT OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST #10 is part of Judith Weinshall Liberman's SELF PORTRAITS OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST series. This work is 10" by 8" (25 cm by 20 cm) and was created in 1997. It is in the permanent collection of the Ghetto Fighters House Museum in Israel. Another version of this work is in the permanent collection of the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, U.S.A. The SELF PORTRAITS OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST series consists of over 150 small mixed-media works in which the artist places herself in Holocaust settings in an effort to explore her emotional relationship to the subject of the Shoah and to express her empathy with its victims.

Born in Haifa, Israel, Judith Weinshall Liberman came to the United States after completing high school. She earned four American university degrees in social studies and law, including a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and an LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School. She studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and at the DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She completed all course work for the M.F.A. degree at Boston University School for the Arts and is certified as an art teacher. Ms. Liberman is an award winning author and illustrator. Her art has been extensively exhibited in museums and other public institutions in the United States and in Israel. Her work is represented in numerous public collections, including the collections of the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, the Haifa Museum of Modern Art in Haifa and the Ghetto Fighters Museum at Kibbutz Lochemai Hagetaot, Israel. Some of the American museums that own her artworks are the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, the Jackson Homestead Museum, Newton, the Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, in Massachusetts; the Temple Museum of Religious Art, Cleveland, Ohio; the William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut and the Florida Holocaust Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida. Her archives can be found at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington DC as well as at the Fine Arts Department of the Boston Public Library in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

IMHO this work is a brilliant way to say: I (=my portrait) identify with the victims of the Holocaust (=Yellow Badge and the word Jew).
All rights reserved to Judith Weinshall Liberman 2007

Vered Shomron Fabian

Photo is courtesy of Vered Shomron Fabian who wrote to me

I am an Israeli artist. I live in the last two years in San Francisco area, but in the four years before I came here I was busy drawing and painting Stars of David. I made a series titles Tattoo and presented it here in an exhibition. Lately I made a new series which includes also Stars of David, but along with Cross and Crescent. I started showing here this series in group exhibitions. In my website there are photos from both series and you would surely feel that the Star of David is very meaningful for me not only as an artist but also socially and politically.

Copyright: Vered Shomron 2007

Judith Weinshall Liberman, Triangles

Photo is courtesy of Judith Weinshall Liberman who sent me the following caption:

TRIANGLES is a wall hanging - a work on fabric - and is part of Judith Weinshall Liberman's Holocaust Wall Hangings series. This wall hanging is 33" by 114" (102 cm by 285 cm) and was created in 1998. Fourteen of the Holocaust Wall Hangings, including TRIANGLES, are in the permanent collection of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.A., together with the artist's Holocaust Paintings series and other works by this artist. The focus here is on six of the insignia worn by Jewish inmates of Nazi concentration camps. The insignia were composed of triangular fabric patches of various designated colors – red for “Political”, green for “Hardcore Criminal”, blue for “Emigrant”, purple for “Jehovah’s Witness”, pink for “Homosexual” and black for “Antisocial” – superimposed upside down upon the “basic” yellow triangle indicating “Jew”. The presentation is based on the row entitled “Insignia for Jews” in the table of insignia of concentration camp inmates as seen in an original document in the camp museum at Dachau.

All rights reserved to Judith Weinshall Liberman 2007

Against Assimilation

Photo is courtesy of sculptor Betty Wachsstock who wrote to me:

The idea of the sculpture is to show a hand with people walking to the top, and entering into the Magen David, inside of it, inside of Judaism.
The hand rests on a Magen David as well, and it is a symbol against assimilation, which is the subject of the sculpture.

On the Magen David there’s a verse from Malachi 3:24

He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents

The statue was made for Bar lan University who gave it to The Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research and Strengthening Jewish Vitality

[It] is an independent R & D center at Bar Ilan University. The Center focuses on analyzing various aspects of Jewish life in order to identify what might be contributing to alienating Jews from Judaism, and on characterizing and formulating options for mending and repair.

Copyright: Betty Wachsstock

Race Defiler

Photo is courtesy of Judith Weinshall Liberman who sent me the following caption:
RACE DEFILER is a wall hanging - a work on fabric - and is part of Judith Weinshall Liberman's Holocaust Wall Hangings series. This wall hanging is 44" by 21" (110 cm by 52 cm) and was created in 1998. Fourteen of the Holocaust Wall Hangings, including RACE DEFILER, are in the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.A., together with the artist's Holocaust Paintings series and other works by this artist. Two of the insignia worn by Jewish inmates of Nazi concentration camps are featured in this work. Both insignia represented “race defilers”, a term used by the Nazis to describe Jews – male or female – suspected of having engaged in sexual relations with “Aryans”. Both insignia combine a yellow triangle, which indicates “Jew”, with a black triangle. The two insignia are based on illustrations found in a row of “Special Insignia” in the table of insignia of camp inmates contained in an original document at the camp museum in Dachau.
All rights reserved to Judith Weinshall Liberman 2007

Avinoam Damari, Peace

Photo is courtesy of my dear friend, Avinoam Damari. This Star of David mosaic, with the word Peace in Hebrew in its center, is part of a series of mosaics in the shape of Star of David that Avinoam intends to make on the fence of his house in Ness Tziona, Israel. So far he made, aside from the above-mentioned work, a Yellow Badge mosaic, which I also published in this blog.

About half a year ago I visited the empty fence, and took a photo of it so that in a few years I’ll have the opportunity to compare it to a fence full with many Star of David mosaics, each would tell a story of a period and all of them would tell the story of the nation.
Copyrights: Avinoam Damari, 2007

Avinoam Damari, Yellow Badge

Photo is courtesy of my dear friend, Avinoam Damari, who works in the Israeli Educational TV in his working hours and on the mosaics on the fence of his house in his spare time. Avinoam Damari wrote to me that this Yellow Badge mosaic is a reminder for the Jewish people to do what is necessary in order to never again be in a situation of holocaust.
I find it interesting that although Avinoam Damari’s family is from Yemen – and didn’t suffer in Europe during WWII - he chose to express his Jewish identity by the Yellow Badge.
Another interesting point is that he chose street art, which becomes part of everyday life, and not art that is closed in galleries and books.
IMHO there are too few art works in the Israeli neighborhood – it seems that Israelis carry the traumas of their previous generations, and find it hard to invest in beautifying their environment, afraid that they will have to leave it in the near future.
These considerations make a respected room for this Yellow Badge mosaic in “my virtual exhibition” titled “Star of David on a Yellow Badge”.

BTW I think that showing art on the internet is a kind of art street that makes art works accessible to those who never put a foot in a gallery.
Copyright: Avinoam Damari, 2007

Tanya Preminger

Photo is courtesy of sculptor Tanya Preminger who wrote to me:

In Passover, the feast of freedom, appeared in the fields of Arsuf-Kedem [ 2 km north of Herzelia, Israel] a huge Star of David made off chrysanthemum, which fills our land with its flowers in spring. This display was made by a group of environmental sculptors lead by Tanya Preminger. After WWII the ;became in our consciousness a symbol of suffering and death. By creating it from flowers in the field these sculptors want to renovate the original symbol which means flowering, blossom, life, independence and freedom.

It reminds me of the verse from Jeremiah 33:11

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,' says the LORD.

But since every day our enemies try to make us disappear I’m afraid that the end of times is delayed. Anyhow I think that this enterprise is full of good vibrations and it is a right movement in the right direction.

Tanya Preminger was born in the Soviet Union in 1944. Since 1972 she lives and teaches in Israel. She is married and has 4 daughters. Tania works in various art media: sculpture, landscape art, installation and photography.
photography of Shlomi Waserman.
Copyright: Tanya Preminger 2007

Judith Weinshall Liberman

Photo is courtesy of Judith Weinshall Liberman who sent me the following caption:

YELLOW STAR is a wall hanging - a work on fabric - and is part of Judith Weinshall Liberman's Holocaust Wall Hangings series. Forty-five of the Holocaust Wall Hangings, including YELLOW STAR, are in the permanent collection of the Temple Museum of Religious Art of the Temple Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., where these works are on permanent display in continuous rotating exhibitions. During the Nazi occupation of Europe, Jews were compelled to wear a badge to distinguish them from non-Jews. The required badge, which varied from region to region, was usually a yellow star on a black ground or a black star on a yellow ground, often with the reference to "Jew" in the local language indicated at the center of the star. This wall hanging, which is 51" by 51" (130 cm by 130 cm) and was created in 1994, treats the badge not as a badge of shame but rather as one to be worn with pride. The image here is that of a regal coat adorned with stars. The yellow stars edging the front and sleeves of the coat suggest a garland of flowers, or lei, a symbol of hospitality and farewell.

Born in Haifa, Israel, Judith Weinshall Liberman came to the United States after completing high school. She earned four American university degrees in social studies and law.

All rights reserved to Judith Weinshall Liberman 2007 

Reality In The Mirror Of History

"Reality In The Mirror Of History" photo is courtesy of Ori Raz , Israeli post modern artist, poet and writer.
Ori wrote to me that this work is titled “reality in the mirror of history” and it is quite different from works of others who deal with the yellow badge. Ori explains that the background is like a children’s world, like a garden of Eden. In the middle of the work there are two Palestinian prisoners and an Israeli soldier. The red dots on the hands of the Israeli soldier remind us of the suffering of Jesus. The yellow badge reminds us of the times when Jews were victims. Message: we, Jews, should have learned our lesson from history and not inflict suffering on others.

In the last few years I have opened the door for creation with colored Xerox photographs. I have used these to create compositions of four creations under a single new frame-creation that created a new composition. At times I have added color with my brush. I have always taken an interests in textures of peeling walls and the graffiti - I have taken pictures of both. In abstract-realistic backgrounds I would find images - to this day I do not know if these images were the creation of the all mighty or the fabrications of my own imagination. I would create contours around the images, limiting their area, and then set them against the abstract backgrounds that I have photographed. After a while I have begun creating with abstract backgrounds while doing spatula creation on paper with different texture. I used expressive spatula strokes, once again discovering images. These images - the figments of my imagination -I would once again define with contours that would differentiate them from the background.

Copyrights: Ori Raz 2007

Ancient Jews with Ancient Tattoos

Photo is courtesy of "minicloud" who published it on Flickr.
Professor Meir Bar-Ilan sent me a translation from Hebrew of his (surprising!) article titled: Jewish Magical Body-Inscription in the First and Second Centuries. Here are some excerpts:

(Ezekiel 9:4-7)… And the Lord said to him, "Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and you shall mark a sign upon the foreheads of the men who are sighing and moaning over all the abominations that were done in its midst." …This indicates that a mark on the forehead was a symbolic guardianship protecting the righteous, … Seemingly, the symbol inscribed upon the righteous was the last letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet. 

Several hundred years after Ezekiel, we encounter the ritual of marking the righteous – described as an event –in Revelations, a book authored around the end of the first century, the last book of the New Testament. The prophesizing author repeats his description several times and in various forms (7:3, 9:4, 14:1, 17:5, 19:12,16, 20:4, 22:4.). These verses prove beyond any doubt, that the author of this book availed himself of previous Jewish sources on the subject of marking the forehead as well as other subjects, and he treated the markings as an actual event…

Chapter three of Mishna Makot…Evidently, according to R. Shimon, it is prohibited to tattoo the name of God on the body – and this seems to him to be the plain sense of the verse – but an ordinary tattoo, has no prohibition…

From here is evident, that the Rabbis were not only aware of the tradition to write the name of God on the body, but that they contended with it in their legal writings…

The Israelites would wage battle with no arms, only with the name of God inscribed on their bodies as it says in Deuteronomy. After they sinned God’s name peeled away – the guardianship signifier was removed, and therefore the Israelites perished.

Holocaust, Dick Ben Dor

The picture is courtesy of the painter, Dick Ben Dor, who wrote to me that it is 1.40 meters high. (The translation is mine)

It starts in the bottom of the paintings in the most black periods with rivers of Jewish blood which continue in all the periods while every layer is a period, but the blood current continues. In the top we see the state, and the pink upward indicates the hope to a better future and prosperity.

Copyrights: Dick Ben Dor , 2007

Robert Fisch

Photo is courtesy of Robert Fisch who sent me the following caption:

In my book "Light from the Yellow Star - A Lesson of Love from the Holocaust" I have painted the illustrations because I felt that, as one who was there, I could justifiably attempt to describe the desolation of those who were part of the Holocaust. The intent of the book was to make an imaginary walk of a reader through the Jewish cemetery near Budapest where my father is. In the cemetery Holocaust memorial walls are names of those whereabouts are known by location contain biblical quotations.
Page 34-5
"AFTER ALL THIS, SHOULD NOT THE WORLD TREMBLE AND
EVERY PERSON MOURN?"

In this painting I used barbed wire to illustrate ghettos, concentration camps, isolation. Even outside there is no hope. The shred of yellow star represents being branded and tattooed. It suggests loneliness, deprivation of dignity, and the residue of the survivors; tattooed persons become merely numbers in sequence, impersonal objects, no longer individuals. Red typifies the existence of horror, torture, suffering, bleeding. Black symbolizes hopelessness, despair, death. Even after death there is no peace. Each line, form, and color is a different shade of sorrow.

"EVEN THE STONES WEEP"
I have tried to give the illusion of walking with me in the cemetery to share how I felt and what I felt among the weeping gravestones -in reality and in my dreams. Let these words be the flowers for those who did not return.
Dr. Robert O Fisch
E-mail fisch001@umn.edu

1201 Yale Pl. #2301
Minneapolis MN 55403
Telephone: 612 375-9760

Ayelet Amit

The picture titled Yellow Star, holocaust and revival, is courtesy of artist Ayelet Amit that sent me several similar works and wrote to me that (my translation):
The works were made while I was searching for the roots of personal identity as a subject that I decided to focus in. The work on the creation of a print is for me, in general, half spontaneous and so, from the attempt to create a star of David with borders which are not sharp there appeared a work that was definitely a yellow patch. The remaining parts around it, the decision on colorfulness of the other layers and the changing of their position inside every item in the series erupted from within my soul during the process of creation until the result, which in my eyes expresses a departure from a situation of distress to a situation of growth.
Copyrights: Ayelet Amit 2007.

Amili Gelbman

This photo of a Yellow Star in a painting titled “daddy” is courtesy of visual artist, Amili Gelbman. Size: 40x40 cm. Amili wrote to me that it is about her late father, Nachman Avnon, holocaust survivor, whose family was killed by the Nazis. It is full with symbols and meanings that describe his life.

Copyright: Amili Gelbman
+972-50-9283037
E-mail: amili@013.net.il

Israel Is Each One of Us

I asked Dan Ben-Arye to publish an add on his web site and call the artists in the artist’s village Ein-Hod to send me photos of works that deal with the Magen David. Dan Ben-Arye published [in Hebrew] a very successful add because soon afterwards artist Dan Chamizer sent me three of his works. The one here has a mirror in the center of the Israeli flag, instead of a Magen David. The idea is that “Israel is you”, because each holder of this work that looks in that mirror sees himself. Dan Chamizer gave this work the title "The flag is who you are"
Wood, plaster, mirror 100X50 cm.
IMHO this should be a commercial product and Israelis who will buy it will remember that they do not need to blame the Prime Minister for all their troubles because Israel is not the Prime Minister – Israel is each one of us!

Copyrights :Dan Chamizer 2007

Habonim Dror Logo

Red Magen David logo pf Habonim Dror Jewish worldwide youth movement

National Science Museum in Tokyo

Photo of the façade of the National Science Museum in Tokyo is courtesy of "eiichi-scart", who publishet it on Flickr under the title the sun flag in front of the stars of David(?)
eiichi-scart wrote to me:

I'm not sure meaning of this stars, maybe element of science.

Paper Cut Ketubah

Magen David appers on a paper cut Ketubah made by Zipora Ne'eman
The Israeli center of paper cuts
Shderoth Halamed Hay 9,
Haifa, 32202 Israel
Tel: 972-4-8121036
cell: 972-52-2257676

South African Zionist Federation Logo

South African Zionist Federation Logo has actually three Magen Davids: one in white and two in blue, like the national Israeli colors.

Jews with Tattoos

Photo is courtesy of jessie doncaster who Published it on Flickr under the title:"for me pa" with the caption:

my new tatt... got it a few weeks ago but it still isn't completely healed... it's for my dad for a lot of reasons.... maybe i'll explain later :)

Felix Nussbaum

Artist Felix Nussbaum was born in Osnabrueck, Germany, and moved to Belgium in 1935. In 1940, he was arrested by the Nazis, but escaped, and lived in hiding in Brussels until he was caught again in 1944 and sent to Auschwitz. Felix Nussbaum's best-known painting  "Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card." shows a frightened Jew with a yellow badge near cement walls under dark sky with black birds and a tree without leaves. This Jew holds an ID card with erased birthplace, nationality marked "None," and "JUIF-JOOD" printed in red.

But The Heavens Remained Closed

Photo of a yellow Star of David with praying Jews is courtesy of artist and Dr Martin Kieselstein who published it in his book We Have No other Land under the title Jews sent their prayers to the heavens, but the heavens remained closed.

Yellow Badge, Testimony of a Jewish Girl

Photo is courtesy of Artist and Doctor Martin Kieselstein who published it in his book We Have No Other Land under the title The Yellow Star.

Here’s a testimony of a Jewish girl about the Yellow Badge
Eva Heyman, diary entry (31st March, 1944)

Today an order was issued that from now on Jews have to wear a yellow star-shaped patch. The order tells exactly how big the star patch must be, and that it must be sewn on every outer garment, jacket or coat…
Source: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9656