2025/5786

I created “Israel at 75” (March 2023) as I reflected on Israel in the year of her Diamond Jubilee, i.e., her 75th anniversary.

From January to October 2023, large-scale protests took place across Israel in response to the government's push for wide-ranging judicial reform.

These demonstrations ceased with the shock of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th. But soon thereafter, until today, protesters gathered to demand that the government secure the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. 

Sporadic demonstrations for judicial reform took place until 12 October, when the formation of a war cabinet paused all judicial reform efforts. Rallies and marches demanding the government secure the release of the hostages continued, and in January 2024 protesters began demanding that elections be held in Israel.

Today I hang on to hope that the hostages may soon be freed and the war in Gaza ended.

Yet, whatever the future holds, I regret that as the situation in the area has deteriorated daily over the past two years my artwork continued to take on more meaning.

The Image: As my handwritten text is English not Hebrew, I think of my artwork as Diasporic Micrography. In creating “Israel at 75” I used the English-language translation of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. I created the drawn frame in the image using the names of the document’s signatories.

Atop the cake are the Hebrew letters ayin (with a numerical value of 70) and hey (with a numerical value of 5). “Ayin hey” also stands for “alav hashalom,” “Peace be upon them,” or “rest in peace,” used following a name to indicate that person is dead.

The yahrzeit (memorial) candles that top the cake represent the foreboding I felt when creating the piece. In addition to referencing the state of the State of Israel, the memorial candles now also reference those killed on and since October 7, 2023: Israelis, innocent Palestinians, journalists, humanitarian workers, ...