Forever and Eternity

The exhibition “Forever and Eternity” derives its name from the 25th day of the counting of the Omer; this is the period of time in which we are now, between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. It is a gray area between when we remember being enslaved in Egypt to the time when we received the Torah, our tradition which has connected us to each other for over 2000 years. The word Netzach means eternity but it is also the root of the word, Nitzachon, or victory. Netzach because we are the nation without an end, we will continue on. And Nitzachon as victory because we are strong, intelligent and full of kindness; we know how to win and why we must. The Nation of Israel began as a family and continues to be a family. Every mother and father, every sister and brother, every son and daughter feel the pain of every other Israeli and every other Jew around the world as if they were limbs of their own body. And pain we have, our nation does not cease to ache. But, just like a family, we are privileged to also feel the success and victory of others in our nation as if it were our own. We are privileged to be proud of each other and to lift each other up. And this is the purpose of the “Forever and Eternity” exhibition. To lift up, to encourage, to be proud. The works of art in this exhibition focus on victories, both national and personal, big and small, which we have been fortunate to witness during the past nine months of war. There have been numerous exhibitions all over Israel mourning our losses, and they were important and necessary, but now is the time to raise morale. Now is the time to be thankful for the thousands of miracles, great and small, which have been part of this struggle. We invite you to be part of this project, not just as viewers, but as creators, and to produce your own images of victory, personal or national, for projection on a screen in the exhibition space. The wall dedicated to our fallen soldiers is full of beauty. The beautiful faces of good people who gave us everything. The beauty of the creativity of the artists, who each chose specific people to honor, to remember and to be inspired by, in order to create an artwork in their image. This wall is a declaration that we are obligated to be worthy of their sacrifice. It is unacceptable to say that “God takes the best of the best from us” and then to continue living just as we were before. From each of these fallen soldiers we must learn and strive to be more like them. We must be the best of the best, for them and because of them. Therefore, we ask every person who knew a fallen soldier to write about them in the book next to the wall, to inspire us all, and we hope recommend that every visitor will read those stories. The Nation of Israel is the eternal nation, the victorious nation, and the nation that will be a family forever. Chani Cohen Zada Using wooden memorial paddles that she received from a guide on “The March of the Living” in Poland, Chani painted 40 moments that touched her as the war raged around her. Chani chose to focus on miracles and not losses; she chose to highlight the might and fortitude of our nation, even while we are under extreme pressure. Chani’s works bear witness to the moment in which the hand of God is evident, uplifts us and gives us strength to confront our enemies. Nadav Teitelbaum During the course of Nadav’s reserve duty, he drew intimate and human moments: a soldier doing aerial yoga between shifts, his partner in uniform playing the guitar, his mother as a volunteer in the fields picking fruit and a soldier in his unit catching a nap. At the beginning of the war, Nadav had great difficulty drawing, only after a period of time, during reserve duty, he was able to start drawing again through those prosaic moments. These delicate paintings remind us of the triumph of the everyday. Inbal Singer Inbal’s series was inspired by the great acts of bravery that we have seen since October 7 and she chose to highlight the important contributions of some impressive women that made an impact on her. Her aim is to bring to light their remarkable courage and ingenuity so that others may be inspired and draw strength from their example. Inbal used a technique of laying blue watercolor as an underpainting and painting the portrait over that layer. This technique mirrors the reality in which these women have taken a sad and dark time and illuminated it tenaciously. Inbal is donating the prints of the works in this exhibition to the city of Ariel, in honor of her grandfather, David Chasman, one of the founders of Ariel. Avraham Vofsi As an Australian immigrant to Israel, Avraham views each of his paintings as part of his journey to connect with his homeland and his roots. Each of these three meticulously rendered paintings represents a part of that journey: the wedding of two close friends during a time of war, the Kibbutznik harvesting wheat reminiscent of the powerful figure of Rut, and the hero Erez Eshel who went down south with a few of his students from Ein Prat, saved over 70 people from terrorists and has been fighting ever since. These are the people and moments through whom Avraham discovers his Jewish and Israeli pride, even as he becomes more Israeli himself. Tamar Rund The four works by Tamar were inspired by other artists: an army photographer who captured the happy mud-covered female soldier, photographs taken by Nachum Marduf, a 17 year old shepherd who was murdered by terrorists and the song “The Sand will Remember” by Chava Albertstein. From each of these artists, Tamar has taken the beauty of their creations and elevated it, returning them to the center stage. Tamar brings those meaningful moments, and people and words to the forefront of our minds and skillfully embeds these images and reminds us what we are fighting for. Gedaliyahu Hortig Enriched by his background as a graphic designer, gardener and expert in Eastern medicine, Gedaliyahu describes the world that our eyes do not see, the spiritual world. He directs the energies emanating from people and nature and interprets these energies onto canvas and wood. These works, both the fantastic and the more realistic, draw on the energies of our struggle as people and the utilization of our strength, spirituality and ingenuity. Gedaliah's works tend towards the absurd or far-fetched, but their purpose is to reveal the truth, a worthy endeavor at a time when the truth seems to be in danger. Natalie Cohen Natalie is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors and she views her very existence as a victory. Through her works, Natalie searches for her feelings and truth, and to find a way to process the pain that we are experiencing together as a nation in order to deal with the large and small challenges of daily life. Her “Soul Searching” series captures the feeling of wading through fog that many people can relate to in this time, the goggles protecting her vision and allowing her to move forward, while the flag, female soldier, and stripped cloth are all symbols of our nation, each one seen from the back in a neutral space, allowing us to imagine ourselves or someone we know as the figure in the painting. Zohar Yarom Zohar's sculpture "Send me an Angel" is dedicated to everyone who needs a guardian angel now. Refugees from the Gaza Envelope are living temporarily in her settlement, so she felt the need to create the statue. Zohar works with an ecological method and the sculpture is made of recycled materials. There is a part that reverberates with the wind and the statue will slowly decay over time. We hope that by the time it breaks down, we will not need guardian angels as much anymore.