Arts

This work of acrylic paint on paper releases a burst of energy and pain while invoking the beginning of the traditional prayer for the dead, written in Moshe Gershuni’s (1936-2017) own handwriting. The image, imbued…

An impressive Jerusalem marble installation in the shape of a large rectangular box with an arched top, Bereshit has the first six letters of the Hebrew alphabet incised backward on its sides. A light within…

Nechama Golan (b.1947), a religious artist who studied at Bezalel, creates a wide range of works in a variety of media, all exploring the place of Judaism and of Jewish women in today’s world. This…

In this series of 32 images in acrylic on canvas, Sharif Waked (b.1964), born in Nazareth, responds to the political situation and the original motto of the Oslo Accords, “Jericho First.” The artist’s first canvas…

Michel Kichka’s (b.1954) gently humorous watercolor vision of “Next Year in Jerusalem” in Noam and Mishael Zion’s Passover haggadah, A Night to Remember, shows the red-bearded Messiah riding his white donkey into a crowd of…

This plasma-cut, corten steel statue in Yad Vashem’s Partisans Plaza was commissioned by a family of descendants of Jewish partisans who, by hiding in the forest, both attacked the Nazis and survived the Holocaust. This…

Environmental artist Ran Morin (b.1958) employs the evocative symbolism of the tree in Jewish life to commemorate the seven students and staff members of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem killed in the terrorist bombing of…

The story of Samuel Bak (b.1933) encapsulates much of 20th century Jewish history: His first art exhibit was held under the shadow of deportations in the Vilna ghetto when he was 9, and his second…

Avner Bar Hama (b.1946) created this work in the shadow of the disengagement from Gaza in 2005. As a sculptor and conceptual artist, he makes use in this work of the iconic Jaffa orange, once…

This oil painting by Ruth Kestenbaum Ben-Dov (b.1961) is based on the Jewish law that each home should leave a small square unfinished in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the size of this…

Designed by Safdie Architects, the Holocaust History Museum of Yad Vashem covers more than 4,200 square meters (45,000 square feet), mainly underground, on the Mount of Remembrance directly behind the Mount Herzl military cemetery. The…

Israel Hershberg (b.1948) was born in the Linz displaced-persons camp to Holocaust survivors and moved from the struggling Israel of the 1950s to the United States. Upon his return to Israel in 1984, he founded…

Elie Shamir (b.1953), son of Kfar Yehoshua, former fighter pilot and now artist, did a series of works about his moshav, which was founded in 1927. In the foreground of this oil painting we see…

This work of carpet on plywood by Gal Weinstein (b.1970) is inspired by the first moshav, Nahalal, which was designed by the German-born architect Richard Kaufman and built in 1921. The original design was a…

In this oil painting on canvas, Shai Azoulay (b.1971) explores the tradition of pilgrimage to the graves of Jewish saintly personae, in this case Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second century tanna buried on Mount…

American-born multimedia artist Andi Arnovitz (b.1960) designed this installation to force the viewer to walk through more than 1,000 ceramic scrolls suspended in pairs from metal rods. One ceramic scroll in each pair is embossed…

Sigal Maor (b.1966), a textile artist active in developing the art scene in her hometown of Ashdod, embroidered this army uniform with the faces of the 67 soldiers who were killed fighting Hamas in Operation…

Our concern for our children serving in the army is the focus of this mixed-media work by Ken Goldman (b.1960). Goldman embossed into the soles of his son’s army boots two Hebrew words from the…

Artist Peter Jacob Maltz (b.1973) walked some 85 miles from his home in the center of Israel to Jerusalem, collecting objects on the way. Upon his arrival, he cast the objects in plaster to form…

Artist and graphic designer Dov Abramson (b.1975) created a conceptual map of Jerusalem named for an imaginary No. 70 bus line and based on 70 images from different parts of the city, in reference to…

Artist Zoya Cherkassky (b.1976), an immigrant from Ukraine, depicts in oil on linen the difficulties that the ex-Soviet olim (immigrants) faced during the massive wave of aliyah in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Here…

The award-winning National Memorial Hall building on Mount Herzl serves as a repository of the names of all the soldiers, Jewish and non-Jewish, who have died in Israel’s wars. Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, together with Liran…

Amira Ziyan (b.1977) is a Druze photographer who lives in Yarka in the north of Israel. Her photographs in this series relate to the role of women in Druze society. Are they simply those who…

Raida Adon (b.1972), the daughter of an Arab mother and a Jewish father, is an actress, performance artist and filmmaker. This video installation from the Israel Museum addresses the alienation many feel, whether as refugees,…