Category: Art

MOVING ON

Tribute to  Israeli mobility artist Yaacov Agam globally celebrated as the father of the Kinetic Art movement.

By David E. Kaplan

Hearing of the sad passing of one of Israel’s most influential artists on the global stage brought back memories of my interview with him in 2018 at the then new Yaacov Agam Museum of Art (YAMA) in the city of his birth in Rishon LeZion. At the time, I was interviewing him as editor of Hilton Israel Magazine.

Before meeting with the artist, I ‘met’ his wife Clila – his late wife –  without even realizing it, for from the moment you step onto the grounds of YAMA, one is engulfed into the rainbow world of the artist – surrounded by a sculpture garden of twenty multicolored pillars all dedicated to Clila.  She remained so much part of his life, his world and his art.

Poignant Pillars. Typically sporting his inimitable hat and attired in multi-colored clothing, Agam engages with visitors to his museum in Rishon LeZion explaining to Rossie and Dr. Daniel Klug from Ra’anana, the symbolism of the striking pillars – dedicated to his late wife – at the entrance to his museum in Rishon LeZion. (Photo: David E. Kaplan)

Looking every inch an artist with long gray hair under a well-worn hat and a full beard, we sat down for over two hours of animated conversation. Abounding in energy despite being then 90-years-old – “I’m off to Paris in a few days’ time” – I came quickly to understand how this diminutive man was a giant in the art world, transforming city landscapes and people’s perspectives.

It was apparent from the answer to my first question that the interview would be as changeling as understanding the man’s art.

Constantly on the move – like his art – I began the interview with: “Where do you mostly live these days?”

“I live on my shoulders. As you can see, I am here now in Israel. Next week I will be in France. I live wherever I am AT THE MOMENT.”

Jovially Geometric. At the entrance to the Yaacov Agam Museum of Art (YAMA) in Rishon LeZion is a sculpture garden of twenty multicolored pillars all dedicated to the artist’s late wife, Clila.

The answer of “at the moment”  incapsulated the character of the man, his art and the museum, which had welcomed me with the  multicolored pillars that all changed as you walked by. The artist explained:

“Usually, when you see a painting in a museum, you stand in front, you look at it, and then you move on. With my work, you will never see everything at one movement. You have to keep moving. I want people who come to the museum to be able to see the paintings from every angle, so it’s also changing the way you look at it.”

The foremost pioneer of optical-Kinetic art, Agam encouraged spectator participation. When I revealed that I received a stiff rebuke when I stood too close to a painting in the Frick Gallery in New York, he replied:

 “That will never happen here – I want people to physically connect with my art.”

It is little wonder why children love Agam’s art and why the artist honors children by appealing directly to them.

SPOT ON

The “Agam Method” for which the artist was awarded in 1996 the Jan Amos Comenius Medal for the non-verbal visual education of young children by UNESCO, teaches children to identify, analyze, and create with the visual building blocks that make up our world. Together, these building blocks – such as shapes, patterns, directions, and symmetry – form a universal “visual language”. The Agam Method has a long history of classroom implementation, research, and refinement dating back to the 1980s. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science led experimental studies to determine its impact on young children’s learning. Data from 1990 through to 2007 indicate that children who engaged with the method, improved significantly in early geometry and visual-spatial skills, including shape identification and deconstruction, visual acuity, and mental rotation of objects. Children also demonstrated significantly higher problem-solving and school readiness skills, particularly in the areas of writing and math.

“Do you have any grandchildren?” Agam asked.

“Two,” I replied at the time in 2018.

On happily hearing that both were aged in months rather than in years, he asked:

“If I gave them a pencil, what do think they will do with it.”

All my answers wrong, Agam demonstrates grabbing a pencil and thrusting up and down making points on the table.

“Points is the most primary act of creation and is born out in the first drawings found in prehistoric caves.”

“What about the line?” I asked.

“Now you are talking evolution – that came much later; could be 1000 years later or even 10,000 years. We do not know. The line is the most significant advancement in the history of evolution.”

Following my rudimentary lesson in the history of art, we jumped many millennia forward to Agam’s ‘Fire and Water Fountain” in Tel Aviv’s recently rejuvenated Dizengoff Square. After decades of public outcry, the iconic site frequently referred to as the “Times Square of Tel Aviv” – finally returned in 2018 to its original glory. Originally constructed in 1986, the kinetic fountain celebrates life as well as unity-in-diversity, an important feature of Tel Aviv’s ethos, considered one of the most free and tolerant cities in the world.

Connecting Kinetically. Agam’s kinetic sculpture ‘Fire and Water’ also referred to as the ‘Dizengoff Square Fountain’, is a landmark in the center of Dizengoff Square, Tel Aviv and is one of the artist’s most famous creations.

CAROUSEL OF COLOR  

So, what was Agam’s response to the major transformation of Dizengoff Square which in the 1930s was the fashionable hub of the city but as the years passed, became seedy? Many blamed it on the square’s elevation above the street below and so what gave the Hebrew slang verb “l’hizdangef” (“to Dizengoff”), coined to describe strolling down the Tel Aviv’s iconic north-south artery, by the 1980s exposed not only a disconnect from vehicular traffic, but a disconnect from people.

Reinstalled back to street level, with traffic proceeding around rather than beneath, Tel Aviv center was restored to living up to its image of change.

Yaacov Agam at the Dizengoff Fountain – Tel Aviv, Israel

“What did you aim to express with your fountain at the very epicenter of Tel Aviv?” I asked.

“Firstly, the buildings surrounding the square are German – designed by architects fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s – and I wanted to brand the square distinctly Israeli with vibrant colors expressing life to contrast with the stark utilitarianism of the Bauhaus architecture. This I achieve with over 1000 colors visible through the water!

No other artist in the world has combined water and fire together.  It was once said in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) during a tough debate:

 “If Agam can make fire and water, what’s the problem?”

Insights on Images. The artist explaining the kinetic nature of his art.

Agam explains how the fountain comprises several big jagged wheels – colored geometric shapes, which are perceived as different images from different angles. A technological mechanism automatically activates at different times of the day and night that turns the wheels on their hinges, shooting fire and water upwards accompanied to music.

The artist’s vision is for people across the globe to be able to activate the fountain through an app. “I don’t want it simply like before; we have to move forward with technology – combining science and art making it globally accessible.”

As to why global interest was so important, Agan replied:

“Because the fountain’s message is universal. I believe it provides Dizengoff with gravitas; the miracle of fire and water with over 1000 colors, ‘reflects’ diversity. The fountain sends a message to the people of the world that although we are different, we are one.”

Mesmerized by Movement. visitors at the Yaacov Agam Museum of Art in Rishon LeZion on August 21, 2018. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

ON RELIGION AND REVELATION

To my question what influence his father, a rabbi, had on his art and life, Agan responded:

“My father was an orthodox rabbi and a Kabbalist; I am a visual rabbi and every work of mine is a visual prayer.” 

Thinking this might explain why symbols like the rainbow are integral in the artist’s work, Agan continued:

“After the flood, God promised Noah never to destroy the earth again, and placed the rainbow in the sky as a symbol of that covenant. It is a visual prayer of peace, reminding that everyone is a party to the covenant to protect our environment.”

Showing me a painting of a rainbow, Agam continued:

“The rainbow is one of the loveliest sights in God’s creation as the colors stand out individually and yet merge with the color next to it, reflecting unity in diversity.”

“Does the visual trump words in our understanding of reality?” I asked, to which Agam replied:

“If the message of the rainbow was only in words, only those who understood the language would understand – some would understand, others would not. Words divide us, sight unites us. Children are born into a world of seeing before speaking. When they start to talk, that introduces separation and disunity. Seeing is so important that when God wanted us to understand him, he provided visions and so when the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, it is written that the People of Israel “SEE” not only hear the word of God.”

Prize for a Pioneer. Pioneering kinetic artist Yaacov Agam receiving the Israel Prize on April 20, 2026 at the Yaacov Agam Museum of Art, with museum director Ruthi Maccabbee. (Photo: Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)

Is it the same with the vision of the rainbow – the need to SEE rather than read of God’s communication with man?

“Yes; following the flood, it is written in Genesis that whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, “I will SEE it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” The problem today is that people do not know how to see; they rely too much on language to understand – and the soul of reality alludes them.”

THROUGH THE PRISM OF PRISON

While Agam trained at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem before moving to Zurich, Switzerland in 1949 where he continued his education at the Kunstgewerbe Schule, he revealed how “the unexpected” and “unplanned” was no less instructive in his education as an artist.

Who would have thought that such education included prison?

In 1946, Agam was imprisoned by the British in the Latrun detention camp after being arrested on suspicion of being a member of the Jewish underground. His detention occurred during Operation Agatha (often referred to as “Black Sabbath”), when British authorities conducted mass roundups to suppress Jewish insurgent movements in Mandatory Palestine.  And who should he meet there other than Moshe Sharett who would later become Israel’s second Prime Minister. “He taught me Hebrew and grammar and he told me over and over that while there is a past and a future, there is no present in Jewish thinking. The present is fleeting; gone forever in a flash. Through our discussions, I formulated a perspective of time that is at the core of my art that is mobile; in a state of constant change – nothing is static. I met all the great artists at the time such as Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Jean Arp but they were all stuck in the past, and the past does not exist. I prefer to be in the state of becoming, like the true meaning of Shabbat (Sabbath) – resting to prepare for the coming week.”

I interrupted and suggested that Marcel Duchamp’s famous Nude Descending a Staircase (no 2) painted in 1912, is not static, that it captures the movement of a figure in descent.

“So why, one hundred years later, is she still descending the stairs?”

I had no answer!

Leaders not Followers. Both unique pioneers, Yaacov Agam (left) and Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali. (Photo courtesy of “Agam: Beyond the Visible” by Sayako Aragaki)

MOVING WITH THE TIMES

“Like Abraham leaving his father to create a nation,” Agam too felt he was creating “something new; a new way of thinking different to the other artists,” a far cry from the early 1950s then with his young wife in Paris “we literally starved and had to go to the Salvation Army for food.” In 1953, he had his first one-man show and sold his first panting to the famous surrealist artist Max Ernst.

When Robert Lebel (1901–1986), the famous French art critic and writer, “saw my work, he said, “We have a new prophet.” 

He was not wrong.

Victor Vasarely, the Hungarian-French artist, widely accepted as a “grandfather” and leader of the op art movement, “told me you have no right make static work. Young artists, particularly from South America were attracted to my style and started to imitate me.”

In time, Agam’s art would attract the attention of President Pompidou of France. “When he was the Prime Minister, he went to see my show. I later received a call from the Secretary General of Artistic Creation who asked me, “What did you do to our PM. He stepped backwards and forwards in front of your painting; he could not understand it but was fascinated.”

Alure of Agam. In 1972,  French president, George Pompidou commissioned a room in the palace to be decorated by Israeli artist, Yaacov Agam.

Later, when he became President, “he wanted a sculpture in his office and asked for a presentation of modern sculptures without the names of the artists. “I will decide,” he said. He chose mine because he could move it.” This led to a commission by the President of a moving salon environment at the Élysée Palace in 1972, where the environment shifted according to the viewer’s position. Enjoying tea with President Pompidou, “He revealed to me that he guided Queen Elizabeth through the salon and that she said she loved it.”

Kaleidoscope of Color. Detail of the Salon Agam at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. (Photo courtesy of Groume via Flickr.)

Asked to make a work commemorating the peacemaking efforts of the president of Egypt, Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Agam created in 1978 a mesmerising Star of Peace. A kinetic sculpture, it appears from one direction to be the five-pointed star of Islam, from another, the six-pointed Star of David, and from a third – a new star formed from their fusion.

Other public projects include a 1987 memorial at the Western Wall for the victims of the Holocaust, and the world’s largest menorah: a 32-foot, 4000-pound structure at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan and based on the original menorah in Jerusalem’s Holly Temple, “not the fake version you see on the Arch of Titus in Rome.”

Concluding the interview, I ask:

Is there any one of your works you prize most?

“It’s impossible. My art is about movement and you can’t have all movement in one work of art. It’s like prayers in Judaism; there is no one prayer but many.”

Fair enough but is there at least one artist that influenced you the most?

“Yes, the Almighty!”



*Feature Picture: Yaacov Agam surrounded by his art at the Yaacov Museum of Art (YAMAT) in Rishio LeZion.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

APPRECIATING ARTISTRY – THE DILEMMA

Can one separate the art from the artist when troubling actions conflict with your values?

By Motti Verses

For years, the music of Oliver Shanti was mainly part of my mornings. His 1996 album Well Balanced, perhaps his most iconic work, blended atmospheric melodies, Tibetan influences, and meditative world music into something that felt almost spiritual. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, his music became deeply associated across Europe with yoga, tai chi, meditation, and relaxation.

Shanti’s soft rhythms and calming soundscapes created a sense of peace that stayed with me long on my way to work. There was something almost healing in the atmosphere he built. Music that seemed disconnected from noise, aggression, and darkness. For years, I woke up to it at 7 o’clock each morning.

But sometimes art and the artist collide in a way that changes everything.

Oliver Shanti, whose real name was Ulrich Schulz, was convicted in Germany two decades ago for serious child sexual abuse crimes involving minors. When I discovered the full story behind the man whose music had accompanied so many quiet moments in my life, I felt a profound internal conflict. It was shocking.

How could music that sounded so spiritual come from someone capable of causing such harm?

For a while, I tried separating the music from the man. Many of my friends argued that art should stand on its own. And honestly, part of me wanted to keep holding onto those melodies because they were connected to memories, emotions, and years of my life.

Eventually I realized I could no longer disconnect the beauty of the sound from the reality behind it. Every song began carrying a shadow I could not ignore. What once felt peaceful no longer felt innocent.

So, I made a personal decision to stop listening to his music.

Fast forward to 2026.

A confession: I have loved FC Barcelona for almost 40 years. Long before football became a global industry driven by endless money and marketing, Barça already felt different to me. It was never only about trophies. It was about style, emotion, identity, and the feeling that football could still be beautiful.

I grew up watching generations of players who played with imagination and soul. In stadiums in Spain as well as other cities across Europe, but mostly on TV. From the influence of Johan Cruyff to Ronaldinho’s joy, Messi’s genius, and now the rise of young talents like Lamine Yamal. Through glorious victories and painful defeats, Barcelona remained part of my life because supporting this club always felt like something bigger than football. It felt like belonging to a story, a culture, and a dream that lasted across generations.

Then came another emotional conflict.

During Barcelona’s recent championship celebrations a few days ago, images circulated showing Lamine Yamal posing with a Palestinian flag among supporters and celebrations. For some fans, it was viewed as a gesture of solidarity with Palestinians – but for me – emotionally affected by the trauma of October 7, and the atrocities committed by Hamas – the image felt painful, political, and deeply uncomfortable.

That is where another dilemma begins.

I have supported FC Barcelona for decades. The club is connected to memories, identity, emotions, friendships, and entire chapters of my life. Then suddenly, a young player, the current  symbol of the club who may likely endure for a long time, became associated, at least emotionally in my eyes, with a political symbol that hurts me deeply.

It created an inner conflict between love for the club and discomfort with what I saw.

Of course, becoming a Barça fan and remaining one does not mean agreeing with every political gesture made by every player. Football clubs are enormous global institutions filled with people from different countries, backgrounds, religions, and political beliefs. But this one felt different.

So perhaps the real question is not: “Should I stop being a Barcelona fan?”

Maybe the deeper question is:

“Can I emotionally separate my lifelong connection to the club from one political moment involving the current mega star?”

Unlike the Oliver Shanti story, this situation is fundamentally different. One involved horrific criminal acts against children. The other involves political expression, symbolism, identity, and the emotions these subjects awaken in so many people, wherever they are.

Logically, I understand the difference.

Emotionally, it is far more complicated.

Spain Again. A return to its bleak past, three elderly Israeli women, including a Holocaust survivor, were kicked out of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid on February 14. The response from the museum staff was not to remove the people who were harassing them but to remove the people who were targeted with antisemitic abuse.

What will I feel the next time I watch Lamine Yamal playing for Spain during the upcoming summer FIFA World Cup? A national team representing a country where public attitudes toward Israel have often felt increasingly hostile and uncomfortable to many Israelis and Jews.

After a few days came the team reaction: FC Barcelona officially tried to distance itself from the incident, without attacking Lamine Yamal personally. The club’s message was essentially:

Yamal acted on his own, not on behalf of Barça.

Spain has the highest rate of antisemitic attitudes in Europe today.

The gesture was spontaneous and not coordinated by the club. Barcelona would not feature the flag moment in official highlight broadcasts or club media. The club acknowledged that many Israeli fans were upset and its response emphasized values of respect and inclusion.

Grave Concerns. Following the desecration of 20 Jewish headstones at Les Corts Cemetery in Barcelona in January, 2026, local Jewish leaders linked it to the sustained normalization of antisemitic hostility in Spain since the October 7th massacre in Israel. They accused authorities of failing to confront a trend of antisemitic violence.

I am relieved, but is the dilemma history?

I have a feeling it is not.

Time will tell.



*Feature picture:  Ulrich Schulz and Lamine Yamal – The Shanti Soundtrack of Yamal dilemma (photo generated by AI).



About the writer:

The author is a seasoned hotel expert, traveler, writer, and videographer, and formerly served as Head of Public Relations for Hilton Hotels & Resorts in Israel. Today, as a travel writer and hospitality trends analyst, his insights and experiences are regularly featured in leading Israeli media outlets.













While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Navigating the artistic response of Israelis to a massacre and war and the power to heal – a visiting architect’s perspective.

By Michael Witkin

I was privileged to visit Israel recently and was immediately struck how ART exudes and proliferates everywhere… on street poles, electrical transformer boxes, walls, hedges, bus stops and train stations, up escalators, across beaches, through open spaces, along freeways and sidewalks, courtyards and gardens including the façades of public and private buildings. Not only painting and sculpture, the list is endless and includes poetry, music, film, ceramics, jewelry, landscaping and photography.

This burst of extraordinary artistic creativity in Israeli society has been unleashed by the painful reality of war and by all the Jewish blood that was so savagely spilled on October 7, 2023. The country has been traumatized and is in constant mourning. Their art is evocative and original and provides a therapeutic healing to restore and make whole again.

While travelling, I constantly heard the strains of classical piano playing in the subways and bus stations and the ever-present sidewalk guitar solos, all very accomplished musicians. Music brings us joy and comfort; it motivates us and calms the soul.

I visited an art exhibition at ANU Museum of the Jewish People on the campus of the Tel Aviv University entitled “October Seventh”. The exhibition curates a body of gut-wrenching emotive and evocative work by 25 artists; some are living, some are deceased including those who were murdered  on October 7th or died during the ensuing war and those who survived and suffered the loss of loved ones, the destruction of their homes or whose families were gravely impacted by the horrors of the massacre.

These works of art reveal the hidden edges of the artists’ souls and portray the unimaginable. Like a fresh wound, there is so much pain residing in the sanctuary of their minds. Not only are these works a representation of the face of one’s life or to lay bare the unanswered questions, but a warning – like the all too familiar ‘SIREN’ – to be ever-watchful for the enemy. These disturbing images succeed in pushing our boundaries and provoking us; revealing deeper truths of our society. Much of this art resonates with oneself and imparts an overwhelming feeling of emptiness, helplessness, despair, and to a degree, fear. I was trembling as emotions I had never felt before were washing over me; all in total silence.

Burying our Dead. October Seventh photographic exhibition at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv.

It has been stated that war and suffering stultify artistic creativity and becomes the death of our dreams. The poet’s voice is silent; the sculptor does not wield his chisel nor does the painter dip his brush. The roiling of the normal and of the natural “According to  Diane Sophrin – Art and Life 6/21/20)”,  has revealed the pain in the dark crevices of our collective anguish as we cling tenaciously onto hope and life; while art seeps in and out of the pores of Israel…

To this point, an exhibition plaque reads:

“It has been said that “when the canons are heard, the Muses are silent”. The need to survive is thought to quiet ideas, thoughts, and creation. This notion seems to have turned on its head in this war, and we are experiencing an abundance of creativity in all art fields. As the canons are heard, the voices of the Muses are emerging all the more clearly from deep down in the throat.”

October Seventh Exhibition – ANU, Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv.

“Among first to give voice to our collective grief were Israeli musicians. The musicians provided temporary relief for people who survived the unthinkable trauma or were about to leave for war. They played at funerals and hospitals, performed for evacuees from the South and the North, for survivors of the music festival’s massacres, and soldiers at meeting points. They often performed only with a guitar – and a lot of soul.”

 (Excerpt from the curator of the October Seventh exhibition- ANU Museum of the Jewish People)

SINCE 7/10 WE CAN’T BREATHE – HELP US!  This painting captures not only the plight of the hostages but the people of Israel who cry in anguish unreleased from suffering. (ANU Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv).

I stare in awe at this painting, take my cue from the text, and literally have to catch my “breath”. I ponder: “Can art that provokes such powerful emotions affect change in Israeli society?” Mesmerized, I am reminded by a quote from Berthold  Brecht:

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”  

                      

Reminiscent of the iconic image of IDF soldiers carrying an injured comrade whether from battle or a military exercise, I stare at this painting and see the weight of a bruised and battered nation on the shoulders of its people. (ANU Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv).
ANU Museum of The Jewish People, Tel Aviv.

 

I stop, step back to process, and see how the artist has turned Matisse’s famous ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ into a Nova Music Festival crime scene with butchered, murdered, naked women splatted with blood. It is horrifying but what Hamas perpetrated was precisely that – a horrifying mass murder crime scene !

I continue and am confronted by a painting of a map of massacre and murder. Interspersed between the now familiar names of towns and kibbutzim I’ve gleaned from the news, are the sites where on “October Seventh”,  the killings took place.

ANU Museum of The Jewish People, Tel Aviv

Women were in the forefront of what transpired on October Seventh. They fought and died with their male peers. In the painting ‘Blood Covenant’ below, the artist Irit Regev, whose daughter-in-law is a survivor of the Kibbutz Or Haner massacre, paints in homage to the woman fighters – ‘First Sergeant P. and her dog Bingo’.

‘Blood Covenant’ by Irit Regev. ANU Museum of The Jewish People, Tel Aviv.
 

That there was little chance for escape for most the young revelers at the Nova Music Festival was captured by this photograph below at the Burnt Car Cemetery. How could one not fail to think:
“Who were the young people in this car and what they went through?”

Haunted Graveyard. Israeli Vehicles Damaged on October 7 (ANU Museum of The Jewish People, Tel Aviv).

When words are not enough to express our feelings, we need another “language”. Art enables us to confront suffering, to connect with our emotions and release our inner thoughts. Art is a pathway to self-discovery and consoles our wounds.  I could see as I toured Israel, this will take time – maybe a very long time.

In an art gallery in Zichron Yakov, south of Haifa, I saw attached to a public wall, a glass shadow box, not with typical jewelry inside but dismembered Barbie Doll body parts, while in Sderot, which terrorists turned into a city of slaughter, I focused my camera on a wall mural opposite the destroyed police station, today a memorial, detailing the Lion of Judah – the traditional symbol of resilience in Judaism – and the lioness protecting her metaphorical young. From our car window, while driving around Sderot, where terrorists mowed down anyone they saw from their  pickup trucks, I saw peering at me from a hedge an image of a haunting face of a young woman hiding in fear.

Barbie Body Parts. Artist unknown at art gallery in Zichron Yakov (Photo: Michael Witkin).
Roar of Resilience. Detail of mural on a side wall of a residential building in Sderot projecting Jewish resilience. (Photo: Michael Witkin)
I snapped this shot as we passed a hedge and saw this face of a woman hiding in fear. (Photo: Michael Witkin).

At the iconic Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, a large evocative sculpture of a chained heart glistening in blood. I saw whimsical little pottery-people sitting on a bench on a ledge or scaling the wall on the side of a house. There is sculpture made from the remains of cars hit by RPG’s while kids burned alive inside as they tried to flee the Nova Music Festival.

All this and more bares testimony to such savagery wreaked upon them that fateful day. They just wanted to love life and listen to music.….

Heavy Heart. Chained bloodied heart at Hostages Square, Tel Aviv  (Photo: Michael Witkin).     
                             

And then there is our Nemesis, the same blackness and savagery of Amalek, Haman and Hitler …the insidious skull of Hamas devouring limbs…… 

Grotesque Graffiti. Skull of Hamas – Street art Tel Aviv. (Photo: Michael Witkin).
Cries from the City. ‘Bring Them Home Now’ is the message throughout Israel as exhibited on a city wall in south Tel Aviv.  (Photo: Michael Witkin).

There are many quotations supporting the notion of the power of art and how it helps us overcome trauma and hardship. Here is an excerpt that resonates powerfully:

“I hold the deepest gratitude to Art, for she has led me to places I never expected to travel. The making, the crafting of art soothes, stimulates, quiets, engages, frustrates, calms and stirs my soul. It makes me feel alive. My inspiration flows intuitively from the stuff of life – Revealing the remarkable within the ordinary, Leading me towards my truest spiritual self, Urging me to see the entire world before I die…..”
(Article: Art as Healing by Heidi Darr-Hope)

Art reminds us of the enduring power of creativity and the transformative healing power of artistic expression. Art does help to heal; for it is in this pursuit that we find a deeper understanding of ourselves and a connection to something larger than ourselves.  Yes indeed, a picture can convey more truth and emotions than a thousand words ever could……

OCTOBER SEVENTH EXHIBITION – ONLINE TOUR




*Feature picture: A poignant message of resilience perched on a piano in Hostages and Missing Square in Tel Aviv. (Photo by Abigail K. Leichman).



About the writer:

Raised in Cape Town, South Africa and a graduate in architecture from the University of Cape Town in 1976, Michael Witkin‘s first commission was the Mosque and Madrasa in the oppressed black neighborhood of Hanover Park where he also helped to raise money and acquire donated building materials. He also designed emergency low-income housing units using waterproofed heavy-duty corrugated cardboard. With the birth of his first child, he designed and manufactured a portable baby bassinet; and was involved in other pioneering projects including water recycling. Michael immigrated to San Diego where he had a successful architectural practice for 28 years; and a construction company for 13 of those years.  He served as president of the North County American Institute of Architects and chaired the design review board for the San Diego City Development Corporation for many years.  Additionally, he critiqued students at the School of Architecture in design. He has 4 children and moved to Michigan 15 years ago.  Besides commercial and residential projects, he specializes in religious buildings, grows flowers and build furniture and charcuterie boards from exotic hardwoods.

You can see examples of Michael’s innovative woodcraft and architectural work at
BOARDSetal. – Michael Witkin and Michael Witkin Architects





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

ISRAEL CAN WALK AND CHEW GUM AT THE SAME TIME

Israel’s military ‘Shield and Arrow’ operation was a lethal reminder to  terrorist leaders not to misread internal tensions as fragility

By David E. Kaplan

My daughter Keren, a dance instructor, gets out of her car early evening outside a municipal dance centre in central Israel and is met by an arrogant woman driver in a car parked next to her with:

 “I can’t breath, your car stinks’ its letting off terrible smells,” she bawls

“Geveret (lady)”, my daughter replies, “the whole country stinks tonight; it’s Lag B’Omer.”

This Jewish festivity is celebrated by lighting bonfires and having barbecues to symbolize the light that Shimon Bar Yochai brought into the world.  The problem was not with my daughter’s car but with this woman’s knowledge or lack of it! Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad(PIJ) in Gaza suffer from that same malady  – ignorance – not of Jewish festivities but of misreading the signs of Israeli society.

The Right Moves. Keren Kaplan’s students in the dance that came first performing at the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre in Tel Aviv. (Photo by Oren Cohen)

It could not go on! Terrorists were murdering Israelis – notably civilians as well as foreign tourists – in restaurants, pubs, standing at bus stops, walking along pavements and seaside pavilions while at the same time lobbing masses of rockets in the south from Gaza. There was a miscalculation by Palestinian terrorist leaders – that Israel was so wrapped up in internal issues and tensions over the government’s frenzied judicial overhaul that it was vulnerable and easy pickings. WRONG! What country in the world is not going to respond when over a 100 rockets are fired at its civilian centres?

You may argue with your government over tax returns; you are not going to argue with it when it tells you we are about to be attacked and to head for bomb shelters.

Shelter from the Storm. A mother clutching her baby in Sderot in southern Israel leave a shelter in between air raid sirens warning of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip May 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

A total of 104 rockets were fired into Israel over a 24-hour period in the week preceding ‘Operation Shield and Arrow’, most by the PIJ according to IDF reports, with some minor participation from Hamas.

Did the terrorist leaders orchestrating this murderous mayhem really believe that Israel was just going to continue with ‘life as ab’normal’?  Did these terrorist leaders really think they were personally immune from attack while they were free to unleash hellfire on  Israelis? Are Israelis expected to behave like chickens in a coup waiting to be randomly snatched? It was this imagery of chickens that reminded me of the response of Britain’s wartime PM to the sneering comment by French Marshal Philippe Pétain, future leader of the collaborationist Vichy French government who was convinced that Germany would successfully invade Britain as it had done France. He told Churchill that in three weeks, Britain would:

“have its neck wrung like a chicken”.

Churchill’s defiant reply in carefully crafted oratory was a dig at France and a scoff at Nazi Germany:

 “Some chicken! Some neck!” 

Defiant in Adversity. Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill delivering his famed  “Some chicken! Some neck!” speech to the Canadian House of Commons on 30 December 1941. (Credit: Library and Archives Canada)

So Israel launched its operation, targeting senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials in pre-dawn airstrikes and no surprise it was supported unequivocally by leaders of Israel’s opposition. In matters of national security, Israelis will set aside differences and hastily shift into existential mode. With a thin sliver to land to protect, most within missile range from some potential enemy, the Shoah (Holocaust) and “never again” casts its shadow. Only a few weeks ago, Israelis stood for a minute’s silence as the siren sounded across the nation, in every city, town, kibbutz and moshav as we remembered the victims of the Shoah.  Now that same siren sounds, telling us that rockets from Gaza are on the way.  If the former siren sound was to remember past  victims  the current sirens are a warning to avoid being victims in the present. That is life in Israel.  Israel’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant and Israel’s leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, may be at opposite sides politically but they can agree what is at stake – existentially. Both are children of Holocaust survivors. Galant’s 88-year-old mother who sadly passed away today while Israel is again at war, first arrived in Israel – then Palestine – on the Exodus. These passengers were inhumanely returned to Germany by the British. Yair Lapid’s father, Tommy, escaped death while being forced marched by the Nazis in Budapest to be downed in the Danube,  when an air raid siren led his mother to drag him into a public toilet, and remain there. Staying in that toilet while the rest of the Jews, following the Allied air raid were led off to their deaths, ensured he would one day have a son who would be a Prime Minister of a future Jewish state and today Leader of the Opposition. While at the same time opposing the government on its judicial overhaul, the opposition is supporting it in its defence against terrorism and hence ‘Operation Shield and Arrow’. This the planners in Gaza failed to comprehend when they fired the barrage of 100 rockets into Israel setting off the consequences that were to follow.

Meeting of Missiles. Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system (right) intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip (left) on May 10, 2023(photo Ammar Awad/Reuters)   

THE STAGE IS SET

These are crazy times. Saturday nights Israelis in their thousands are legitimately off to protests and in-between will shelter in bomb shelters. Addressing craziness in her own way is my dance instructor daughter Keren Kaplan with the non-smelly car.  With the intense dramas playing out on Israel’s national stage, I was  pleasingly diverted to another action occurring on a different stage –  theatre stages in Tel Aviv. There, my daughter’s students of Soul Studio performed a dance choreographed by her called ‘It’s a Very Very Mad World’ and which won first prize in two national dance competitions – ‘I BELIEVE’ at Cinema Cityand the Confederation National Dance (CND) at the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre.

Following these spectacular wins, her students qualified to compete in two international competitions abroad – in the U.S.A and Spain. Explains Keren:

 “In a crazy world like ours, we are all dealing with a lot on our shoulders whether  personally or collectively; we are all in this delusional period. What the song is about is very relevant today and in my vision, we live in a kind of circus amidst all this chaos.”

Take a ‘time out’ and log on to enjoy the dance:

https://www.facebook.com/1542085554/videos/194347843429383/




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The truth about the Sydney Festival boycott

By Judy Maynard

The 2022 Sydney Festival was one of the most controversial ever, but not for artistic reasons.

At the festival management’s request, the Israeli Embassy in Australia provided $20,000 to help stage a production by the Sydney Dance Company of “Decadance”, a work that has been performed in theatres and festivals all over the world since its creation 20 years ago by renowned Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin.

From Tel Aviv to Sydney. Crafted from excerpts of Israeli visionary choreographer Ohad Naharin’s works over a decade with Tel Aviv’s Batsheva Dance Company, Decadance is  a contemporary dance that speaks to everyone – except haters of Israel!

The donation was acknowledged on the festival’s website by an Israel logo alongside those of other government and community partners.

This angered local pro-Palestinian activists, who demanded the festival return the embassy’s donation and remove the logo. When the board of the Sydney Festival refused to meet their demands, the activists launched a boycott campaign, supported by the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, calling on artists to withdraw from the festival, nonsensically branding it a “culturally unsafe” environment for Palestinian and Arab artists.

A number of artists acceded, some willingly. But as festival chairman David Kirk revealed, the only unsafe environment was caused by boycott supporters – many of whom subjected artists to blatant bullying, name-calling and moral blackmail.

On Jan. 13, Kirk told the ABC Radio National “Breakfast” audience that many of the artists were being pressured to withdraw their performances. Some were receiving an unacceptable “battering” on social media, and were as a consequence feeling “unsafe and compromised”.

The Australian newspaper reported Kirk’s comment that some artists and festival staff had been subjected to “emotionally damaging” attacks. He called on activists to behave like “decent human beings”.

In a tweet on January 13, Jennine Khalik, one of the boycott organisers, said that claims that the “artists were bullied + pressured to withdraw [were] completely untrue.”

This article will demonstrate otherwise.

The production of “Decadance” by the Sydney Dance Company choreographed by Israeli Ohad Naharin, was supported by a small grant from the Israeli Embassy.

BDS goals and tactics

The anti-Israel boycott movement likes to present itself as a non-violent resistance, encamped on the high moral ground, but its tactics in securing martyrs for the cause show otherwise. In many cases, it claims it has gained the solidarity from those it has in reality intimidated.

BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti does not prevaricate about the movement’s real goals, having declared “No Palestinian will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.” In a recent interview, he expressed the view that “Jewish culture is part of Arab culture,” negating any concept of self-determination for Jews after centuries of persecution.

As the BDS movement cannot physically eliminate Israel, it aims instead to “cancel” the Jewish state in whatever ways possible, trying to render it unseen and unheard. Activists campaign for the ostracisation of Israeli artists and academics internationally, and attempt to sabotage the normalisation of relations between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Israel and Arab states.

Having no success with the latter, as the Abraham Accords attest, the ire of BDS is directed at vulnerable targets – and this often does not involve simply putting one’s case and asking nicely.

In June 2018, the BDS movement claimed a campaign victory after the Argentinian national football team cancelled a friendly match scheduled in Israel. BDS activists shared widely a “quote” from star player Lionel Messi in which he supposedly said he could not play against “people who kill innocent Palestinian children. We had to cancel the game because we are humans before we are footballers.” But Messi never said any such thing.

Claudio Tapia, head of the Argentine Football Association, said the team actually had been forced to cancel due to serious threats against the players, and would try to play in Israel at a future time. The then Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said the threats had exceeded those of Islamic State.

Jibril Rajoub, the President of the Palestinian Football Association, who claimed he had only been involved in peaceful protests against Israel, was suspended by FIFA for a year and given a hefty fine for “inciting hatred and violence”.

Another own goal for BDS was its “triumphant” campaign against the Israel-based manufacturing company Sodastream. As a result of activist bullying, the company relocated a plant in the West Bank to the Negev region, resulting in 500 Palestinians losing their jobs.

Yet the welfare of Palestinians has never been the real focus of the anti-Israel boycott movement; its ultimate desire is the elimination of Israel, as Barghouti noted.

Anti-Israel activists are always seeking new ways to “cancel” Israel. A recent example is the Australian “Do Better On Palestine” campaign, which called for media coverage that avoids “bothsiderism” – a euphemism for insisting that only the Palestinian viewpoint should be aired when news organisations report the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The same local activists who introduced that campaign to Australia are also responsible for attempting to disrupt the Sydney Festival because of the Israeli logo on its website. That logo is to them symbolic of Israel being afforded a space like any other country in international affairs and in the public consciousness, and must therefore be removed. They seek to impose on Australia their discriminatory view that Israel must be always treated as uniquely, irredeemably evil.

Going Gaga. Israeli choreographer, contemporary dancer, and creator and teacher of a unique system/language/pedagogy of dance called Gaga, Ohad Naharin. 

Denying the Ugliness

These anti-Israel stoushes always become ugly, but the boycott organisers’ strategy entailed depicting themselves as principled and noble, simply setting out their case while remaining above the fray.

Responding to Festival chairman Kirk’s bullying allegations, Khalik tweeted “we have approached artists with love and empathy… and left the decision with them.”

Co-organiser, Sara Saleh, told the ABC that they “had approached their conversations with artists with care and sensitivity” and that they were trying to “build a movement and a future… on freedom, liberation, love and equality.”

But even from information available on the public record, it is obvious that many of the targeted (and pro-Palestinian) artists were not feeling the love.

The Abuse of Katie Noonan

Well-known Australian singer-songwriter Katie Noonan posted on Facebook on January 7:

    “I decided to not get involved in this boycott, despite repeated, vigorous and quite aggressive attempts to do so. I simply said I was not contracted by Sydney Festival and was in fact contracted by SIMA [Sydney Improvised Music Association] – an awesome and very important independent cultural org [sic] I love, and I could not ask my fellow indie artists to turn down paid work after the hardest 2 years of their lives. Simple.”

She continued that she was “deeply saddened by the nature of online discussion and wish we could have respectful robust discussions without vitriol, but it does not seem possible in these difficult times.” She also revealed that she’d been called “a racist, mysogonist [sic], anti-feminist, POC [people of colour] hating, WOC [women of colour] hating, homophobic, transphobic, Palestinian hating, colonial loving, cis white, pink washing priveliged [sic] hetero c**t.”

This post then received over 1,000 comments, a mostly negative pile-on, in which Noonan was accused of being racist, Islamophobic, ignorant and a liar. Many claimed to be disappointed fans.

A couple of the more supportive comments suggested “that a group of people who likely never even followed Katie in the first place have been told to come on over here and play stack’s [sic] on”, and “this isn’t public sentiment, this is organised mob outrage.”

At no point had Noonan suggested that any of the unacceptable messages she’d received had come from the boycott organisers, but several of them nonetheless took the opportunity to attack her as if she had – while saying she was a “racist” for making such claims.

Khalik posted a series of tweets on Jan 8:

    “So Katie Noonan claims she was repeatedly and aggressively told to withdraw. There was one exchange on behalf of the campaign… Not sure why she is lying — feels like some nasty racism towards Palestinians…I’m literally stunned lmao [laughing my arse off] how do people lie through their teeth like this. She told us she wouldn’t withdraw and we said best of luck, and we’re always here to chat. but this is aGgReSsIvE [sic] the crocodile tears here are next level.”

In a tweet on January 9 Khalik called Noonan’s statement “impossibly racist and untrue”.

Saleh commented on Noonan’s Facebook page:

    “Katie, with all due respect, as one of the organisers I have screenshots of the conversation that took place, and your replies, which ended congenially. We would never be anything less than respectful because what we are fighting for is our freedom – underpinned by justice and love…I’m sorry you felt you needed to implicitly smear us this way…”

Another organiser, Fahad Ali, also left a comment on Noonan’s Facebook page:

    “We were immensely respectful when we reached out to you and we have the screenshots of these interactions and your replies.

    This post is dishonest and disingenuous. There was no reason to smear our movement and delegitimise the Palestinian struggle for freedom because you felt personally offended in some way. You have put your own ego before millions of Palestinian lives…”

To both Saleh and Ali, Noonan gave the identical response:

    “pls [sic] don’t presume the boycott organising peeps [people] were the only people who contacted me.

   Unfortunately that is a naive and incorrect assumption. Unfortunately they have disingenuously shared parts of our exchange, rather than the entire exchange and that unfortunately created another incorrect narrative.

    I never accused the boycott organizers of anything.  The incorrect and nasty slander has been v upsetting but I choose to rise about it and not engage.”

Yet these organisers, having called Noonan a liar and a racist, have not publicly apologised for, nor retracted, their potentially inflammatory comments, despite Noonan’s response and the lack of any basis on which to allege that she was actually attacking them.

It is also curious that they seemed oblivious to the possibility that some of their fellow travellers just might have engaged in aggressive exchanges, especially when Saleh and Ali’s comments on Noonan’s January 7 post appear alongside many that are openly demeaning. Did they really not notice them?

They did, of course, but took no responsibility.

Indeed, both Saleh and Ali implicitly acknowledged the aggression – even while condemning Noonan for calling attention to it. Saleh told the ABC she “could not control the actions of passionate fans who felt strongly about the issue,” while Ali was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying, “We can’t control the reactions of fans or other commentators.”

Meanwhile, Ali, displaying his “immense respect”, tweeted on January 8:

    “So my best guess of what happened with Katie Noonan is this: she saw [comedian] Judith Lucy coming thru with now something like 7k likes on FB for withdrawing from Sydney Fest and she thought “hey, I want some of that” but figured she could get even more attention if she went pro-Israel.”

Ali is correct in one respect: Noonan certainly received attention. On January 12 she posted again on Facebook:

   “It’s been an educational and very upsetting 5 days. I have listened and learned from various disparate points of view – informed and ill-informed, from lived on-ground experience and from the anonymity of a faceless keyboard 14,000 kms away, and I have observed behaviour I abho,r and behaviour I admire.

    …Twitter is a new hellhole of mentall [sic] illness and vitriol that I am quite happy to never engage with again, and I am really disappointed my name was used in am[sic] inaccurate post that was presumptive and incorrect.

    …I am saddened a twitter shitshow was incited without my consent (as I posted no twitter content regarding this issue)…Sending peace/shalom/salaam and kindness to all.”

Noonan was subjected to bullying and aggression, but not just because she refused to join the boycott. It started before she made that decision. What clearly emerges is the harassment and intimidation of artists by persons probably unknown to try to force compliance with boycotts.

Katie under Pressure. Famed Australian singer-songwriter Katie Noonan experienced “vigorous and quite aggressive” social media pressure to join boycott of Israel.

Victimised, even after complying with the Boycott

Musician Sarah Mary Chadwick sides strongly with the Palestinians and did withdraw from the Sydney Festival. She wrote about the experience, posting the following on her Instagram and Facebook accounts after she’d already withdrawn:

    “Me and my baby Filter are getting pretty pissed off … by pressure exerted on artists to boycott festivals and events. I do not appreciate unsolicited mail from people who have zero understanding or knowledge of my financial situation or life in general. Before you contact your ‘favourite’ artist and encourage them to ‘do the right thing’ maybe consider the following.

    – do you have any knowledge as to whether the artist currently has any income due to Covid?

    – is it really your place to instruct other people essentially to make significant donations to causes YOU have prioritised, regardless of the validity of the cause?

    – do you have any knowledge of medical or personal costs the person you are contacting is managing and do you kno (sic) if they are in fact, able to manage them at all?

    is it the artists (sic) role to give up their livelihoods when the gov[ernment] continue to underfund arts? Anyway, stop telling me what to do, strangers. I have my own moral compass and I use it effectively.”

Again, Chadwick did not directly accuse the organisers of aggressive tactics. As she had already withdrawn, it was courageous of her to blow the whistle on the bullies.

Yet this “respectful” response was received from someone operating the “Boycott Sydney Festival” Instagram account:

    “This post is gross, Sarah. Yes, it’s been a rough year for artists. On the other hand, Palestinians are resisting 7 decades of massacre and dispossession. You’ve made your choice, but don’t centre yourself. And don’t try to police the ways that Palestinians or their supporters choose to expand a boycott against literal violent oppression.”

Another response comes from an account which appears to belong to Matt Chun, an organiser of the boycott:

    “A public post about choosing the wrong side of a picket line is weird. You have agency, as you’ve pointed out, and you’ve used it. Nobody has prevented that. But manufacturing victimhood in opposition to those who are resisting an apartheid regime is appalling.”

Protesters outside the production of “Decadance” by the Sydney Dance Company (Image: Twitter)

Boycott organisers frequently boasted of the number of artists who withdrew, and posted their photos in a gallery on their Instagram account. Yet strangely Chadwick’s photo is missing, despite her stance.

Some of the artists who were heavily critical of festival management for putting them in what they regarded as an invidious position also confirmed the bullying tactics used to encourage withdrawal.

The band Tropical F**k Storm, led by Gareth Liddiard, issued a strongly worded statement, saying the decision to accept Israel as a sponsor “would inevitably mean that hundreds of unwitting artists (who are having a rough enough time with the pandemic as it is) would become the targets of online harassment, bullying, smear campaigns, ridiculous accusations, misrepresentations and abuse from total strangers who have no idea what’s actually going on behind the scenes, what any artist’s position is or even what they’re talking about.”

Performer Jaguar Jonze joined the boycott in mid-January and released a statement criticising the festival for creating “an environment where artists and audience are put at risk and forced to endanger their careers and well-being. Because of this, the safest decision that is left – to protect myself, my team and the audience in a way the festival has decided not to – is to withdraw and cancel my performance at Sydney Festival.”

Saleh retweeted this, calling it a “principled, sensitive show of solidarity”, which is surprising as it seems to indicate a more immediate fear of harm to one’s physical “well-being” from supporters of a boycott.

Crocodile Tears

The boycott’s organisers give an impression of respectful direct dealing with the performers. Statements by the few artists who dared go public give a glimpse into the murk below.

And then there are the crocodile tears.

In response to Festival chairman Kirk’s apology to artists for putting them in a position “whereby they’ve felt pressured or compromised to withdraw their acts,” Ali demanded the board divest itself of the Israeli funding to protect artists. “If [the decision to accept the funding] has had the effect that it has left artists feeling compromised and unsafe, why continue to put artists in harm’s way?”

Such impeccable logic – as if it were the funds that endangered the artists, and not the menacing BDS trolls.

In similar vein, how touching the concern expressed in Saleh’s tweet of January 15:

“We hope that Sydney Fest board recompenses artists for harm and loss incurred.”

Anti-Israel boycotts have never achieved anything for the Palestinian people. They have only hurt them and now, in the case of the Sydney Festival boycott, also hurt vulnerable local artists coping with the aftermath of a pandemic.


About the writer:

Judy Maynard policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.









While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)

Tel Aviv is Welcoming its Tourists Back

The day has dawned – Israel opens its borders to international tourists

By David E. Kaplan

For a city with a reputation as “THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS”, it seems that is exactly what Tel Aviv residents have been catching up on for the last two years. Maybe, with its traditional frenetic hummus to hedonistic pace, a ‘time out’ was not such a bad idea even if the reason was a global pandemic. However, as Israelis say in such situations that have long passed their level of patience:

“ze maspik” – (“it’s enough”).

Now, with most of the country vaccinated with the booster; they are not only raring to revel but welcoming back tourists from abroad – provided of course they too are all ‘vaccinated’!

Unlike bears, hedgehogs, some snakes, bats and turtles, humans are not built to hibernate, particularly  in Tel Aviv. With 300 days of guaranteed sunshine a year and some of the best beaches along the entire Mediterranean coast, Tel Avivians are social creatures  feeling most at home when not at home.

Beach City. From 16 beaches to choose from, here is Tel Aviv’s Frishman Beach to soak in the good weather. (Photo via Shutterstock)

Anyway, all this changed on the 1st of November when Israel opened to individual tourists for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Only the day before, as a journalist, I received this Press Release from the office of the Mayor of Tel Aviv-Jafa. In poetic prose it read:

“The seabed has been cleaned, the cocktail served, the pastry warmed up and the cauliflower grilled – all reserved for our favorite customer…TOURISTS! For the first time since March 2020, individual international tourists are welcomed back into the city, just in time to swap the cold weather for a sunny winter in the city that never sleeps.”

Clearly they want local journalists  to spread the word globally, as the Press Release continues:

“The pandemic has given us a minute (or more) to focus on our city and perfecting the little details to ensure an easy landing and seamless travel experience for all those coming to discover the cultural center of Israel.”

Known for its award winning beaches, beautiful promenades, historic sites, mouthwatering restaurants, pavement cafes and bustling nightlife, Tel Aviv cannot wait to welcome back its greatly missed travelers. Most inviting of all, are its incomparable beaches –  16 to chose from!

Tel Aviv Twilight. Enjoying a late afternoon walk passing the lifeguard station on Tel Aviv’s Bograshov Beach at sunset. (Photo by Frank Fell Media, via Shutterstock)

The Israeli coastline may not conjure the majestic swells found off the beaches of Hawaii, Australia or this writer’s native South Africa. Nevertheless when the wind is right and the swell up, the allure of the crested curve invites surfers of all ages. A common sight in Tel Aviv’s ever-increasing traffic, are surf-boards on the side of mopeds as riders nips through the city traffic to the beach.

Anything Goes

To explore the newly opened city, the Municipality is offering free walking tours in English at some of the most iconic places. Whether one would want to discover the history of ancient but bustling Jaffa, the enriching culture of trendy Sarona in a 19th century Christian Templar setting, the world heritage sites of the architecturally unique “White City” or the quaint charm of Neve Tzedek where Tel Aviv began, “we have a tour to please everyone,” continues the Press Release. Coinciding with the opening of the skies to tourists, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art will open its Yayoi Kusama exhibition. There is a reason why the famed artist chose Tel Aviv as the next destination for the retrospective, and “we invite all to discover why!”

Sumptious Sarona. Tel Aviv’s version of iconic markets around the world, Sarona, in a 19th century setting, is ready to welcome back overseas tourists.

The exhibit is ranked as one of the biggest and most impressive art exhibitions opening in 2021 around the world, and will follow Kusama exhibits at Gropius Bau in Berlin and another retrospective of the artist’s work at the New York Botanical Gardens.

The Tel Aviv exhibit is a joint collaboration of Studio Kusama in Tokyo and the Gropius Bau in Berlin.

“Her entire oeuvre is mesmerizingly powerful, impressive and pleasurable at the same time,” said Suzanne Landau, curator of the exhibition and the museum’s former director. “The presentation of her retrospective at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is definitely a unique event of historic magnitude.”

Polka-Dot Lady. Considered an influence on Andy Warhol and a precursor to Pop art,  the art of Yayoi Kusama  can we seen at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Now 92, Kusama is easily recognisable by her red wigs, witches’ hats and robes, and a proliferation of polka dots on her clothing and other surfaces. She would feel quite at home in Tel Aviv where “anything goes”.

With Kusama’s art having crossed into commercial cooperative ventures with luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton making her work more familiar to fans of all ages, she has emerged the most tagged artist on social media. With a public thirsting for exciting quality experiences, “particularly now, in the post-COVID-19 period with all its difficulties,” said Tania Coen-Uzzielli, director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, “the presentation of this monumental exhibition in Israel, in collaboration with other museums around the world, will allow the Israeli public to enjoy a unique international cultural event.”

Choice Pickings. The allure of the yellow and black polka dotted pumpkins at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art exhibition of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama on October 31, 2021 (Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

They will be hopefully joined  by an increase in foreign tourists.

For this writer however, the best of Tel Aviv, is homegrown Tel Aviv, exploring and discovering  its unique creative fruits. This occurred this week when with my nearly-4-year-old grandson Yali, we came upon this surprise art gallery in Neve Tzedek, ZYGO on quaint Shabazi Street. Yali was fascinated, running from one sculpture and painting to another, explaining to his clueless grandfather  the meaning of each piece. Many of the pieces were variations of clothespins, which Yali easily identified and yet the runaway imaginings that evolved thereupon were expressed by:

“WOW Grandpa!”

Waiting to Welcome. Tel Aviv’s artsy Neve Tzedek  – with its fashion boutiques, handicraft shops, restored 19th century railway station, trendy restaurants and bistros and live jazz bars at night – is now waiting the arrival of the tourists.

Our reactions to the art brought out more than our lively loud discourse, it also bought out none other than the artist himself, who stepped out from his back studio into his gallery to see what the commotion was all about. Going under the name of “Zygo Artist”, he found us and launched into explaining his work and his vision. “The clothespin represents love, the coming together in embrace of two halved souls – the man and the woman.” He points to the raised leg at the knee of the woman, in dance mode with her partner. The colour and the vitality of the art so represents the exuberance of Tel Aviv but I was intrigued where the name Zygo came from.

In the spirit of innovative Tel Aviv, the artist who coined the term  “Zygotism” is set on pioneering a new art movement. The term he explains, he adopted from the realm of biology, which expresses the first stage in the creation of a new organism – the moment when two genomes combine to create a completely new genome and start cell division. A “zygote” is a fertilized eukaryotic cell.

From Love of Art to Art of Love. The Gygo Art Gallery in Neve Zedek, Tel Aviv with clothespin sculptures in the foreground.

The two become one on a third and other plateau:

 “similar to a divine love which compel two individuals to separate from their former life, home, habits and views in order to devote themselves to one another and to create a new eternal whole, which is their joined loving bond.”

Eternal Embrace. Love in the form of a coupling clothespin at the Gygo Art Gallery in Neve Zedek, Tel Aviv.
 

Not sure how much a nearly 4-year-old understood all this but most certainly was entertained  by the art and sensed there was “a lot of love going around”.

It is that same love that the newly opened city of Tel Aviv- Jaffa is ready to welcome all with open arms, and hearts!



Closeup of Clothespin. Taking a closer look at a clothespin sculpture, the writer’s 3-year-old grandson, Yali (left) at the Gygo Art Gallery in Neve Zedek, Tel Aviv. Inspired, Yali moves onto the next work of art.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Monumental Man

A tribute to the passing of Israel’s internationally renowned sculptor – Dani Karavan

By David E. Kaplan

Internationally famed for making his monuments blend into their environment, Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan – who died this past May 2021 at the age of 90 – blended into the public, hardly recognized when walking about his native Tel Aviv.

Monumental Man. Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan became recognized for making his monuments blend into their environment.

I put this question to the artist in a  co-interview with Moshe Alon in 2013 when we asked:

“While you are an internationally acclaimed artist, admirers of your work might not recognize you standing alongside one of your masterpieces? Does this bother you?”

“Not at all. I think you hear about the noisy ones more than the quiet ones but this is true of any group. People hear about the extroverts and less about the introverts. Some artists prefer to create their work in peace and quiet, and you don’t hear much about their personal lives.”

Karavan’s work can be found across Europe, Asia and Israel. It’s hard to escape his distinctive style that blends sculpture, architecture and the landscape into unique and monumental pieces. Through molding and meshing of the environment, Karavan’s works showcase the urban or natural elements of their respective surroundings. As such, his materials range from concrete – in the construction of large geometrical structures – to the lands natural offerings – trees, water, grass and crusty surface.

We noted that “Your works are not ‘sculptures’ in the traditional sense – pieces that are exhibited in a museum or placed in the middle of a public square,” and asked. “You integrate the natural environment using the land – as if sculpting the landscape?”

“That’s correct. This is what characterizes my work which is rooted to a physical environment and not to an atelier [artist workshop]. I was once privileged to meet the distinguished sculptor Henry Moore and observe him work in his environment – how he molded a model the size of a suitcase handle and enlarge it ninny-nine times its size.

For me it’s the opposite, because the large environment where I work emerges as part of my composition.

One example is the wall at the Knesset, rooted to the environment –  physically and conceptually. Another is the Negev Brigade Memorial – my first big piece as a sculptor – and which was a groundbreaking project. Up until then, “site-specific” environmental sculpture did not exist. To some degree, it is similar to architecture, where the architect designs specifically for a particular environment.

Monumental Impact. The Monument to the Negev Brigade is in memory of the members of the Palmach Negev Brigade who fell fighting on Israel’s side during the 1948 Arab Israeli War. The perforated tower alludes to a watchtower shelled with gunfire and the pipeline tunnel is reminiscent of the channel of water in the Negev defended by the soldiers. Engraved in the concrete are the names of the 324 soldiers who died in the war, the badge of the Palmach, diary passages from the soldiers, the battle registry and verses from the Bible and songs.  In addition to its strengths as a memorial, it was a precursor to the land art  movement.

In effect, I am a sculptor that does not search for a place, but rather the place seeks me. Michelangelo said that the statue already exists within the stone; I say that the sculpture already exists within the environment. I just unearth it. This is essentially my contribution to the evolution of sculpture. I wanted that sculpture be something people can climb and children play on – that it will be full of life and not pieces where people visit once a year to lay flowers.”

How true when I think of Karavan’s massively monumental work at the Edith Wolfson Park on the eastern edge of the city of Tel Aviv. If its Tuesday, “we, the grandparents”, are usually there with our grandson. Perched high, the park offers a magnificent view of the city from its most iconic Karavan “The White Square”, the monumental work overlooking “The White City” as Tel Aviv is famously known because of its white Bauhaus architecture. Karavan’s sculpture is a complex geometric work that is an ode to the city itself.

Fun in the Sun. An activity all to familiar to the writer, a father and son slide down the sundial of Dani Karavan’s ‘White Square’ sculpture at Edith Wolfson park, overlooking Tel Aviv. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

If Tel Aviv is a city not so much to see but to experience, then so too is Karavan’s sculpture where it is less viewed than it is walked, climbed, roller-skated and rollerbladed upon. I invariably join the “kids” in sliding down the sculpture’s colossal “sundial” on carboard as well as scampering up the large “pyramid”. The sculpture exudes physicality  – it is a metaphor for Tel Aviv of open-ended action befitting its reputation as “the city that never sleeps.” If you are generally “into art”, then visiting The White Square you literally, “get into” this art as you climb in, over, upon and through it!

Feeling his Way

On several occasions, he was commissioned to create memorials for victims of Nazi Germany.

The horrific atrocities suffered by Jews, and others during World War II, was a key theme in Karavan’s work, not least because his parents’ families lost many members during the Holocaust.

On Track to Death. Dani Karavan poses on part of his installation “Homage to the Prisoners of Gurs” during the presentation of his exhibition “Dani Karavan Retrospective” at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum in Berlin. After the Vichy government signed an armistice with the Nazis in 1940, Gurs became an internment camp for mainly German Jews. (Courtesy of Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images).

Another notable example is the “Way of Human Rights” at the Germanic National Museum in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg.

Karavan’s  “Passages” memorial in Portbou, Spain, also became well-known since its unveiling in 1994. It commemorates the German philosopher Walter Benjamin, who died in the small Spanish border town in 1940 while fleeing from the Nazis.

It was named “Passages” in remembrance of Benjamin’s final passage from France to Spain, as well as his enormous unfinished work Passagenwerk (Arcades Project) on 19th-century Paris. The name also refers to the several passages visitors make during their time at the memorial, from the journey down the steps to the glass view of the ocean whirlpool and back up to the rectangle of sunlight in the dark.

War and Remembrance. Inaugurated on 15 May 1994, marking the 50th anniversary of his death, “Passages” in Portbou, Spain  pays homage to  the philosopher Walter Benjamin in his failed flight from the Nazis.

Taken from Walter Benjamin’s On the Concept of History, etched in German are the words:

“It is more arduous to honour the memory of anonymous beings than that of the renowned. The construction of history is consecrated to the memory of the nameless.”

That “nameless” Dani also ‘rectified’ in his memorial created in 2005, depicting the foundation of the Regensburg Synagogue in Bavaria, Germany that was destroyed during a pogrom in 1519. On February 21, 1519, the Jewish community of Regensburg  –  that had lived in the city for 500 years – was ordered to leave but only after its members had demolished the interior of their 13th-century synagogue.

Demolishing more than a synagogue, they were forced to demolish their past.

Despite his international fame, when asked which award among all those he has received touched him the most, he answered unwaveringly:

“The Israel Prize which I received at the age of 46. It stands today as my greatest honour. I received it during a very special year and the person who shook my hand at the ceremony was Yitzhak Rabin… an added honour. While I hardly mention the international awards I have won, I am never reticent about my Israel Prize.”

Visitors surround the memorial to the Sinti and Roma victims in Berlin
Remembering Roma. The Berlin memorial for the Sinti and Roma murdered by the Nazis during World War II Many relatives of Dani Karavan were killed during the Holocaust and the atrocities and those affected by them became an important theme for the Jewish artist.

‘Portrait of an Artist’

The recurring flower motif  in Karavan’s work is reminiscent of his memories of his childhood and of his father’s garden. The ‘sights and smells’ of nature from his home in Tel Aviv – before it was the bustling city it is today – continued to influence the artist’s’ work.

Dani probably drew his inspiration from his father who had been a landscape architect. He studied art in Israel (at Bezalel), Florence, and Paris. During his youth, he was also involved in the establishment of kibbutz Harel, located in the Jerusalem Corridor. A week following our interview in 2013, he travelled to Berlin to dine with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A man of the world, he relished in recalling “raising mice and lizards” as a child and “weeding my father’s garden in order to earn a small allowance to buy falafel and soda.”

Forgotten People Remembered. Dani Karavan and Chacellor Angela Merkel at the opening ceremony on October 24, 2012 of the Memorial for the Murdered Sinti and Roma. (Photo Stephanie Drescher)

Known for creating poignant monuments in Israel and around the world, Karavan’s most recognized local work is the huge wall carving in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, named “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem”.

While Karavan could mold material to articulate his dreams and visions, he lamented “an inability to influence better relations with our Arab neighbours. My father arrived in Israel in the 1920s. He came as an idealist, and I inherited that idealism and what better vision to work for, than the pursuit of regional peace and happiness. If you ask what I still want to do, yes, I need to finish my autobiography but also, to collaborate with a Palestinian artist on a project toward peace.”

Writing on the Wall. To inspire all before it at work on guiding Israel’s destiny, Israeli artist Dani Karavan’s ‘Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem’ on the wall of the plenum hall at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, May 13, 2015. – REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Not all endeavors “towards peace” are invariably fulfilled. However, that task, even though Dani Karavin has passed on, still maybe possible. If Dani Karavan is no more, his most notable work in Israel, the huge wall carving decorating the plenum of the Knesset – is.

Appropriately named, the stone mural of an abstract Jerusalem landscape depicting surrounding hills and the Judean desert, faces the elected members of ALL the people of Israel – and under the shadow of Dani Karavan’s creative mind and hands, they can continue his ‘unfinished work’  – to pursue peace.




Some of Karavan’s important works:

A walk in the park7 The “Path of Peace” sculpture by artist Dani Caravan. An environmental sculpture which is one of the attractions of Nitzana


A Walk In The Park5


UNESCO Square of Tolerance – Homage to Yitzhak Rabin, Paris, France



A Walk In The Park6
The Axe Majeur, Cergy-Pontoise, France









While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

A Brush with the Past

The brushstrokes of Nachum Gutman reflect and reveal Tel Aviv’s rich and colourful journey from sleepy city to the ‘city that never sleeps’.

By David E. Kaplan

The art of Nachum Gutman is a colourful and vibrant roadmap into the past. It offers a visual narrative of days gone; but also an understanding of where we are today. If we marvel at the creativity and unpredictability of Tel Aviv today, explore the art of this great artist to best understand this great city.

Window into the Past. A visual tapestry of early life in Tel Aviv at the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art in Neve Tzedek.

Located in Neve Tzedek – the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa – the location and setting of the Nachum Gutman Museum could not be more idyllic. Perched on the east end of the narrow cobbled Rokah Street, with its quaint old, restored homes and lined with trees, the area exudes the ambiance of an artist colony.

Blue and White. The colours of Israel emblaze the walls exhibiting life in the “First Modern Hebrew City” – Tel Aviv.

In this aesthetic locale, the Nachum Gutman Museum is at home. Comprised of two buildings, the main one houses Gutman’s permanent collection called Beit Hasofrim (Writer’s House). Built in 1887, “It was one of the first buildings in Neve Tzedek and is the oldest in the neighborhood,” says Monica Lavi, the Director and Chief Curator of the Nachum Gutman Museum, whom I met in the foyer of the site.

Bright and Beautiful. Interior of the Nahum Gutman Museum, Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv.

“In the early years, Tel Aviv’s intellectuals favoured this new neighborhood,” says Lavi, “and Writers House acquired its name due to the impressive number of famous writers who lived here and gathered for literary meetings and discussions.” Such literary luminaries included the famed Jewish poet Hayim Bialik, S. Y. Agnon, who would later win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Joesph Aharonovitz, Dvora Baron, and Nachum Gutman’s father, a renowned Hebrew writer and educator who wrote under the pen name S. Ben Zion. The Gutmans too lived in this neighbourhood, “so Nachum grew up here, absorbing as a child the local lifestyle and intellectual culture of a young city on the move.”

Street Scene. Colourful life in Neve Tzedek where the artist grew up.

Between the years 1907 and 1914, the museum was home to the weekly newspaper, Hapoel Hatzair (The Young Worker), founded by A.D. Gordon, Yosef Ahronowitz, and Yosef Sprinzak, that followed a Zionist socialist agenda and sought to establish a Jewish foothold in Palestine through personal labour in agriculture. “These pioneering idealists,” says Lavi, “were active from 1905 until 1930. So, as you can see, this building was an intellectual powerhouse, a natural home for the art and writings of Nachum Gutman whose art captured all the trends that were shaping the emerging nation.”

Visually Vibrant. A watercolor of ‘Figures in Neve Tzedek’ with the Mediterranean in the background.

We learn how intimate Gutman was to the historical sources from his contribution to the ‘Book of Tel Aviv’, which the Tel Aviv municipality commissioned his father, S. Ben-Zion, to write in honor of the city’s 25th anniversary. “Sometime after he began to work, S. Ben-Zion died,” says Lavi, “and the editing work was completed in 1936 by editor and translator A. Druyanov. Gutman produced eleven illustrations for the book, one of which was his father sitting and writing at night.”

As I reflect on Gutman’s father “sitting and writing at night”, I think of the lights of Tel Aviv’s commercial skyscrapers  – separated by a century – indicating the young and the ambitious, working well into the night.

After all, Tel Aviv is now known as the “City that never sleeps.”

‘Good Morning, Tel Aviv’. The artist capturing in this oil on canvas a new dawn in a young city.

Streetwise

The first work that greets the viewer is a large colourful painting of Tel Aviv. A juxtaposition of images, it captures its iconic architecture, its outdoors way of life and that it’s a coastal city. With the sea in the background and ships coming in to dock – this was still the age when the docks at Tel Aviv still operated – one can identify Allenby Street as it reaches the seashore. We see outdoor cafés with people sitting around tables on the sidewalks, chatting, reading and watching the passing show. This is quintessential Tel Aviv – a vibrant city with people on the move. In this sense, little has changed. Gutman captured the essence and spirit of a city that stands the test of time.

Tale about Transition. The pastoral and the urban mesh in an emerging Tel Aviv sprouting north of the ancient port of Jaffa  replete with ships at sea and ‘ships of the desert’ – camels.

I gravitated to a nearby computer screen where I waded through a most colourful compilation of Gutman’s paintings of Tel Aviv. All bright and expressive – the streets were bustling with honking cars, horse and donkey drawn carts, people standing around and talking in the middle of the streets ignoring the traffic. There were the residents of apartment blocks sitting sunbathing on rooftops reading newspapers, and in the distance in many of these paintings, one can see the port of Jaffa. The contrast from old and new Tel Aviv was startling. Relatively high-rise buildings in the foreground of a modern 1920s Tel Aviv with ancient minarets in old Jaffa in the far off background, convey the trajectory of a journey from the past to the future. Israel was changing and Gutman captured this transition in animation and vivid colours.

Family Man

Moving to a mock up of the artist’s studio with his original chair and upright easel, one’s eyes gravitate to a huge black and white photograph of the artist sitting on the same chair, hard at work painting on a large canvass on the same easel now on display. The alignment of props and photographs is such, that one ‘feel’s the artist’s physical presence as well as his close feelings towards his family: on the wall is a painting of his wife Dora, one of many on exhibit.

Room with a ‘Vision’. A recreation of the artist’s  studio  in the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art.

The writer then moved along a wall mostly taken up with oil paintings of Gutman’s only son Hemi sitting on his mother Dora’s lap. Preceding these is a self-portrait of the artist with Dora sitting on his lap as if a pleasing portend of what was to follow – son Hemi. In each painting, ‘baby Hemi’ is dressed in a different baby outfit as is his mother – the affection between mother and son is so emotively evident.

Cuddling Couple. Dora Gutman intimately seated on the lap of the artist.

Clearly, the artist was expressing himself as a loving family man. This sense was reinforced when curator Lavi explained some background to understating these paintings: “Nachum was twelve when his mother died and his father took another wife and left. Nachum was left with his grandparents who raised him so when he became a family man, he painted over and over again his wife and child, as if to show that he was the father that his own father was not.” The titles speak for themselves:

‘Dora, Hemi and a toy’, ‘Dora with Hemi on her lap’, ‘Sleeping baby (Hemi)’ and so on.

Mother and Child. The artist’s wife Dora and son Hemi.

“He wanted to show through his art,” said Lavi that “he was a loving husband and father, and that the family was united.”

Looking Back

Ascending the stairwell between landings in the museum, I notice a large Gutman self-portrait standing before his easel but looking back over his shoulder, towards the viewer. It’s a powerful painting, all the more so when one understands that the artist was constantly in a retrospective mode. He was painting not so much what he was seeing in the present but what he remembered of the past.

‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’. A relaxed Nahum Gutman reclining in a chair.

“It is easy to forget that Gutman was only 11 years old when Tel Aviv was founded,” says Lavi. “Apart from one immature drawing, we have no childhood sketches by Gutman depicting the city. Even in that single sketch we see the houses in a built up street and not virgin sands. The Ahuzat Bayit and Tel Aviv that we know from his paintings and stories are all from memory, from his knowledge and historical materials. They were painted when he was in his thirties, decades after the city was established.” For this reason, explains Lavi, “when we tried to organize his body of work chronologically, we discovered that it was hard to arrange along a timeline. What we had believed to be an early work was actually a later one. His own adventures, together with historical events were written many years later and were based on written sources, and what seems as if it might have been painted as an observer at the time of an event, was actually painted from memory.”

Dreaming on the Dunes. A city founded on sand dunes north of Jaffa in 1909, Nahum Gutman’s idealistic impression of a sun soaked Tel Aviv depicting icons of the Zionist enterprise.

Out of Africa

There were once few children in Israel unfamiliar with Nachum Gutman’s illustrated book ‘Lobengulu, King of the Zulu’. It was written during his visit to South Africa in 1934 when he was sent by the Municipality of Tel Aviv to paint a portrait of General Jan Smuts, who would later emerge as that country’s Prime Minister and a great supporter for a Jewish national homeland. The book in Hebrew was serialised in 1935-6 and became a children’s bestseller. Apart from the many prizes Gutman won for both art and literature – for over 30 years he was also the illustrator for the ‘Davar for Children’ newspaper – he was awarded in 1978 the country’s most prestigious civilian award, the Israel Prize for children’s literature.

Out of the Wild. The front cover of ‘In the Land of Lobengulu, King of Zulu’, Nahum Gutman’s popular book about his adventures in Africa (Courtesy Nahum Gutman).

In the museum there is a room dedicated to Lobengulu King of the Zulu, which is an adventure story, written in the first person, of the author and his friends searching for the treasure of the Zulu king. While they fail to discover treasure, the author does discover in his first of many books, something far more enriching – the ability to reach the minds and hearts of children; especially at a time when they needed an infusion of faraway fantasy.

Explains Lavi:

 “It was during the turbulent thirties. The Arab Revolt in British Mandate Palestine was in full swing, and Gutman provided with pen and brush a valuable service by taking the minds of young children away from disturbing events in their daily lives to a land far removed, where they could indulge their imagination in adventure and fantasy.”

The room is replete with colourful paintings of tribal and wild life in Africa, set in forests, mountains, open veld and rivers, crocodiles, elephants, monkeys and hippos engage the viewer. “The kids love this room,” says Lavi who is most proud of the museum’s commitment to children’s education in art.

Adventure in Africa. Artist, writer and illustrator, Nachum Gutman brings the mystique of Africa to the Jewish children of Palestine with his popular ‘In the Land of Lobengulu, King of Zulu’. (Courtesy)

The wondrous warm character of the artist is revealed here not by his brush but by his pen:

“Have you ever paid attention to how much the word tzayar (painter) is similar to the word tzayad (hunter)?
When I was a boy, I wanted to be a hunter,
And even now I’m a kind of hunter. I have the character of a hunter.
Not to kill the animal,
But to capture its soul on the canvas.”

Hello Hemi

Noting my interest in the many paintings of the artist’s wife and their child Hemi – all painted in the 1930s – Lavi asked: “Would you like to interview Hemi, he is a professor emeritus biophysics at Tel Aviv University?” I jumped at the opportunity, and Hemi was no less excited: “visitors are a museum’s oxygen,” he expressed at the beginning of the interview.

“What was it like growing up in the Gutman household?” I asked the retired professor, who until then I only knew as a toddler on his mother’s lap.

“It was like living with a legend. While on the one hand he was a normal father, I was constantly fascinated by what he was doing.” Smiling he adds, “I think I was a little jealous at times. I remember thinking that he was so busy writing, painting, and meeting important people that he was spending too little time with me.” He agreed that in a way he is destined to spend all eternity with his illustrious father being immortalized in so many of his paintings.

Age of Reflection. The artist in later life.

While Gutman immigrated with his parents to Eretz-Israel in 1905 at the age of seven, he was truly a product of his new environment “and as a student, he soon rebelled against the European style of painting at the Bezalel Art Academy,” said Hemi. “When my father attended Bezalel, all the teachers there were of European descent, and their entire treatment of subject matter was based on European landscapes and even on European lighting. Dad’s group rebelled; believing that the different landscapes in Israel, one in which summer days are often gray and filled with blinding light from dust, required a new and different treatment.”

In this way, Gutman was the leading ‘light’ – the operative word – in creating a uniquely Israeli style of art.

Before Gutman, “there was no such thing as Israeli art,” says curator Lavi. “Yes, you could say there was Jewish art and Judaica would fall into this category, but no Israeli art as such.  This would be left to Nachum Gutman – one of the first children to live in Tel Aviv and one of the first students at Bezalel. His contribution to Israel’s culture is immeasurable.”

1912 Overture

I concluded the visit by staring at a huge photograph taken of an art class of aspiring students at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem. The year was 1912 and the students in the class, all fourteen of them, are painting while their teacher, Abel Pann appears in the front right corner, sketching. The large photograph appeared to me like an orchestra practicing with the teacher at the head looking like a conductor.

Artist on his Way. While many in this 1912 art class at Bezalel Academy of Art turn to face the photographer, Gutman, seated at the back, remains transfixed on his canvass.

Seated in the back of this ‘composition’ was the emerging ‘maestro’ Nachum Gutman immersed in his work. While many in the class turn to face the photographer, Gutman’s eyes remained transfixed on the canvass in front of him, too busy capturing others to be concerned with others capturing him.

With each brushstroke, the young student was on his way to become the founding figure of Israeli art.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (O&EO).

Beauty and the Beach

An architectural masterpiece  on Tel Aviv’s coastline canvas will enhance the city among the leading cultural capitals of the world

By David E. Kaplan

It is said that the 21st century is destined to be the century of cities rather than countries. This forecast is evident in the vocabulary of today’s tourists –  at least before Corona –  of visiting Paris, Barcelona, St. Petersburg or Shanghai rather than mentioning the countries in which they are situated – France, Spain, Russia or China!

Down by the Riverside. On the banks of the Yarkon River and a few steps from the sea, Tel Aviv’s future World’s Jewish Museum.

More than half the world’s population has already moved to cities and this is expected to rise to 80% by the middle of this century. With so many cities vying for center stage, Tel Aviv is now going beyond its branding of being the “Bauhaus Capital of the World” – reflecting early 20th century clean, utilitarian architecture – to an uncertain and exciting future of flirtations and fluctuations. This has given rise to one of the most poignant descriptions of Tel Aviv as a city “waking up each morning and deciding what it’s going to be.” The  new spectacular sculptures ascending to the heavens across the Tel Aviv landscape,  attest to this branding and in a few short years’ time, there will be a major addition that encapsulates the city’s essence and affirms its rising global status. That addition will be the new  World’s Jewish Museum designed by the legendary award-winning Canadian-born American architect – Frank Gehry, whose masterpieces have disrupted the very meaning of design within architecture. These “disruptions”  are powerfully projected in such monumental works as the La Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

It was hoped before the Corona pandemic that this world-scale museum, cultural and entertainment center would have been completed before May 2023, in time for the 75th anniversary of Israel’s independence. However, when completed, the World’s Jewish Museum on the 22-dunam (5.5-acre) site overlooking the Mediterranean along the bank of the Yarkon River at the northwestern edge of Hayarkon Park and steps from the Namal ( Port of Tel Aviv), will be the hub of cultural and recreational activity and the heart of the city’s vibrant waterfront.

Marvel on the Med. Adjacent to the Medetrrnean and the Hayarkon Park that attracts over 15 million visitors a year,  a model of Tel Aviv’s  World’s Jewish Museum.

While engendering great excitement, there are however, those that remind us that society cries out with so many pressing needs from education and health to socio-economic inequalities and criticize the need for such expansive and expensive adventures.

There is however a strong counter argument.

Look to Bilbao in Spain and what Gehry achieved for the status of that city and just as important – the benefit for Bilbao’s citizens!  

From Bilbao to Tel Aviv

Architects and city developers talk about the “Bilbao Effect” referring to the “WOW factor” that followed the opening in 1997 of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in northern Spain. From being a lack-luster industrial city totally off the tourist’s map, Bilbao emerged virtually overnight as one of the most popular destinations in Europe. Frank Gehry’s stunning monumental structure hailed as “one of the most admired works of contemporary architecture” and which the late esteemed architect, Philip Johnson, called “the greatest building of our time”, rapidly reversed the city’s fortunes which had fallen victim to an industrialization that had either aged or moved elsewhere. Within the first year, the museum with its distinctive titanium curves and soaring glass atrium attracted over 1,300,000 visitors exceeding all expectations and infusing $160 million into the local economy. In its first five years, the Museum generated more than a billion US dollars for the Basque country, more than ten times the museum’s cost. Whatever the staggering costs of financing alluring cultural magnets, the returns far exceeded the outlay. Widely credited in putting Bilbao on the map, Gehry’s masterpiece has subsequently inspired other iconic structures around the world, which will soon be joined by the World’s Jewish Museum in Tel Aviv.

Maestra and Masterpiece. Famed architect Frank Gehry with a model of the future World’s Jewish Museum in his office.

Back to the Roots

It may at first seem strange that Gehry, who doesn’t identify as Jewish, took on a uniquely Jewish project in the Jewish homeland?

His explanation is a long journey – nearly as complex as his architectural designs, but it includes this admission:

 “There’s a curiosity built into the Jewish culture. I grew up under that. My grandfather read Talmud to me. That’s one of the Jewish things I hang on to probably— that philosophy from that religion. Which is separate from God. It’s more ephemeral. I was brought up with that curiosity. I call it a healthy curiosity. Maybe it is something that the religion has produced. I don’t know. It’s certainly a positive thing.”

What intrigues the architect  – who was born Frank Goldberg – is that “The Talmud starts with the word ‘WHY’.”

So little surprise that on the model of the museum sitting in Gehry’s offices, the word Lamah (“why” in Hebrew) is carved into one of the buildings, although the architect remains usure whether it will be included in the final construction.  

 Reframing the Jewish Narrative and Showcasing Achievement. Gail Asper holding a World’s Jewish Museum folder in the Frank Gehry-designed Galleria Italia at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in March, 2018. (Photo by Etye Sarner).

Fellow Canadian Gail Asper of the Asper Foundation – the visionary behind the museum – explains that “The site will have the greatest story that’s never been told about the Jewish people. It will celebrate the joys not the oys. The museum is more about how Jewish values have transformed and improved the world.” 

For Asper, having Gehry bring her vision to fruition “is like hearing angels sing,” she says. “Frank immediately loved the vision. I know that beautiful architecture inspires the soul and Frank designs incredibly breathtaking, inspiring buildings. I love Bilbao. I love the Disney Concert Hall. I love what he does. And for all the countries in the world to not have some extraordinary breathtaking Frank Gehry building, Israel absolutely deserves that. And Israelis deserve that. They put up with an awful lot living in Israel. They pay high taxes. They’re dodging rockets, even in Tel Aviv.” 

Inside Story. An artist’s impression of the inside of the World’s Jewish Museum Tel Aviv.

The Museum will provide a cutting-edge, educational and inspirational experience that explores the contributions that Judaism, the Jewish people and Israel have made to civilization in numerous fields over the past 3,500 years, from the Bible to enterprise, science, education, culture and social justice. Says Gehry:

“Most of the buildings until this point to represent Jewish causes and issues have included the Holocaust  because that was such a searing, burning, terrible issue in our lives. This museum will really be about celebrating the achievements of this culture over time, and some of it is extraordinary, and a lot of it has not been told as it will be in this museum.”

Shape of things to Come

Gehry is passionate about restoring art back into architecture. He laments that “a lot of the world no longer considers architects as artists. So I think what’s needed is architects who are artists.” Historically, he asserts, “architecture was considered an art”, but that changed following WWII when “it got mixed up with other issues like commercial developers.” In the aftermath, a debate has persisted over whether architecture is an art or just the creation of a solid structure for the benefit of society.  For Gehry it is both as we will one day see and be bedazzled by the allure of his first building in Israel, Tel Aviv’s World’s Jewish Museum. Israelis and tourists from abroad will visit the museum to see the building  as much as its exhibits within. The packaging will be no less fascinating than its contents. This was the case of Bilbao.

Taste of Tel Aviv to Be. Gail Asper with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, center, and Moe Levy, executive director of the Asper Foundation in Winnipeg. (Courtesy)

Alluring Architecture

Since the Bilbao success –  a deliberate choice in using contemporary high-profile architecture as a tourist draw card – the term, ‘Architourism’ has gained currency. There is no doubting the seductive value of these highly photogenic and iconic buildings  to lure visitors. Apart from Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, one has only to think of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York, Danish architect, Jørn Utzon’s Opera House in Sydney, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Cesar Pelli’s Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur that has featured in movies and TV productions, most notably the film Entrapment, where the building ‘starred’ alongside the late Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones.

The building was no less the star of the show!

There is no denying the power of man-made marvels capturing people’s imagination. From ionic structures in ancient times such as the Acropolis and Colosseum to the more  modern examples such as the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben or Empire State Building, all achieved celebrity status as powerful visual metaphors of their cities. Imaginative architecture brands a city to lure visitors and commerce.

Success of Structure. Hardly any other city has benefited from a museum as much as Bilbao. The Guggenheim Museum has made Bilbao so alluring that it attracts millions of tourists annually  from all over the world.

In a few years, adding to this illustrious list of iconic global edifices, will be Frank Gehry’s World’s Jewish Museum that will further lift Tel Aviv to new prominence in the world of contemporary design.

I marveled at this thought when last Friday morning, I stared at the vacant sight where construction has yet to begin and with the model of the museum in my mind, thought  of Tel Aviv’s exciting tomorrows.


World’s Jewish Museum architect and visionary Frank Gehry discusses his vision for the design of the building.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs

From Drive-In to Sail-In

Tel Aviv-Yafo goes ‘retro’ with  Israel’s first “Sail-In” floating cinema

By David E. Kaplan

Those old enough, would well remember the “Drive-In”? Whether in the USA, South Africa, Australia and yes, Israel’s Tel Aviv, couples used to pile into their cars  to watch movies and snack at the same time, without someone bellowing “keep quiet!” Sound came from speakers clipped to the car window – not that the quality mattered too much in those days.

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Sounds of Silence. Remember when the speaker did not work and you had to move the car.

It was the age of motorcar romance and as one commentator so ‘fondly’ recalls, “Whether they watched the movies or not depended on how friendly they were.” And as I recall, those sixties and seventies horror movies were a ‘sure thing’ to engineer getting extra ‘friendly’.

No doubt, the Drive-In played its role in propagating our species.

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Oh, Those Were The Days.

Unlike today when Tel Aviv is in the vanguard for innovation, the “City that never sleeps” came late to the ‘Drive-In’’ party.

Only opening its first Drive-In in 1973 north of the Yarkon River with Disney’s Jungle Book, it remained open until 2000, finally giving way in 2014 to the Shalom Group Arena, the home ground for the Hapoel Tel-Aviv basketball club. Most important, it retained its huge parking area from the Drive-In era and to mark the annual romantic Jewish holiday – Israel’s Valentine’s Day – of TuB’Av (4th August) – it was back in business. In the City’s press release, it advertised the Drive-In’s opening with the anatomically suggestive “for the romantically inclined”!

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Adjusting to Corona. The parking lot of the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball arena is repurposed for a drive-in theatre.

On select evenings of the week during the sweltering summer month of August, in conjunction with the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality and the Tel Aviv Cinemateque, there will be screenings for 200 cars, strictly in accordance with Health Ministry guidelines and “purple badge” public health standards. Movie audio is transmitted in high quality via an FM radio frequency. “Tel Aviv is the ‘non-stop city’ but the coronavirus outbreak understandably halted a large share of cultural and leisure activity,” said Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai. “Nevertheless, we constantly searched for creative ways to grant residents access to culture. The return of the drive-in is another creative way to pass the hot August days, in accordance with Health Ministry guidelines.”

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Tel Aviv’s legendary Drive-In Theater Returns. The screenings are exclusively for DigiTel Resident Card holders and tickets must be purchased ahead of time via the municipality website. (photo credit: AMIR YAKOBY)

The director of the culture department in the Tel Aviv municipality, Shavei Mizrahi, said that in light of the high demand for screenings, “a reassessment of the situation will be made, and the intention is to conduct more screening days, including weekends.”

Down By The Riverside

Tel Aviv is characterized by always taking things to the next level and in this case from land to water. Fresh off the successful return of Tel Aviv’s legendary drive-in theatre, Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality was delighted to announce on the 9 August, the launch of Israel’s first “Sail-In” floating cinema at HaYarkon Park’s boating lake.

With the Coronavirus pandemic proving particularly challenging for the entertainment industry worldwide, outdoor initiatives represented almost the sole solution for cultural events.

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Floating Around. An illustrative image of the ‘Sail-In’ floating cinema at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park. (courtesy of Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality)

Following Health Ministry approval for open-air drive-in events,  Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality again in partnership with Tel Aviv Cinematheque, will launch a “Sail-In” floating cinema under the clear night sky from August 22-28.

A total of 70 ‘socially distanced’ boats will be available to moviegoers, adults and children alike, seeking to enjoy a night of cinematic entertainment under the stars.

Like people in public, boats will be distanced two meters apart at all times opposite a large screen, ensuring a safe and fun experience, and allowing all ticketholders to float and unwind and escape the daily grind in a serene atmosphere between the water and the stars. If movie-goers are unlikely to hear other patrons crunching their popcorn, they may hear the night owls, crickets and frogs – nature’s divine soundtrack.

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No Dress Code. Feet out the window, relaxing and watching a flick at Tel Aviv’s Drive-In. (Photo: Avshalom Shoshani)

Tickets for eight screenings – four suitable for families and four suitable for adults – will be available exclusively to DigiTel Resident Card holders.

The launch of the “Sail-In” floating cinema joins a long list of municipal initiatives that include fitness classes on the roof of the Tel Aviv municipality building and musical performances on the roof of the Eretz Israel Museum.

Tel Aviv is in the forefront  of coming up with creative ideas during corona as befitting one of my favourite monikers:

 “The city that wakes each morning wondering what it’s going to be.”

 

 

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs