Shem Olam Faith & the Holocaust Institute for Education, Documentation & Research

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Educational Museological Exhibitions

"ROOTS" – Space Inspiring Meditation and Reflection

"Roots", a space inspiring personal reflection is a unique learning experience.
In a hall displaying various exhibits, groups of students and teachers and also family groups, observe, study and discuss the artefacts, artworks and documents which give expression to the Jewish Home and the sense of Jewish Identity then and now.
All exhibits, personal items and works of art on display, face the charred Torah scroll situated on the root of a tree, a symbol of Jewish survival. These items were both taken by a group of Jews and Jewish individuals on deportation from their homes or produced in places they arrived at. They were found in death camps, in hiding and in the hands of strangers. The owner of the Siddur (prayer book) engraved in blood his demand for revenge, a member of a youth movement was murdered in Chelmno with his community and his movement pin was found in the death pits, and a painting created by a hungry artist who chose to paint it with food saved from his mouth.
Testimonies of Holocaust survivors, reflecting the strength of mind and spirit are laid out on wooden tables. The translated documents enable each visitor to the exhibition to take on the role of a researcher and historian. Through interactive visual activities, each visitor is exposed to information, photos and stories which form a chronological narrative.
This is a meeting that incorporates joint study and explores in depth the levels of Jewish identity, human spirit, morality, and the power and influence of the light emerging from the darkness.
 
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Remembering the Way, I'll remember Home- Artist Simon Resnick

One can hear the sounds coming from the silent metal sculptures created by artist Simon Resnick after his return from a visit to Poland. Reznik, born after the Holocaust, visited his place of birth and the place where he lived until immigrating to Israel at the age of 10. Recycled metal sculptures express sounds of the personal and collective memory. The sculpture "last generation" expresses the voice of the individual who wishes to pass the memory on from generation to generation. The voice of the remaining void is heard under the statue of the torn tallit (prayer shawl) used by Jewish males in their prayers, and was left deserted after being forcibly torn away. The sound of scorching fire, which scorched hands, is the fire that burnt the faces of those unknown individuals whose names are lost forever.
The exhibition features 18 sculptures and the first - "Zabar" (Sabra) spikeless, represents us, the Sabras (Israeli born), who upon seeing and hearing the sounds, cast off our spikes and remain soft.

 

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"Human voice" - the artist Osias Hofstetter Hufsstadtr

"Human voice" is an exhibition of drawings by Osias Hufsstadtr and the walls surrounding the exhibition space are lined with quotes by him and his best friend Jacob Vodislavsky. The exhibition space presents the viewer with the voice of friendship and the good relationship of the deceased Osias Hofstetter and the late Jacob Vodislavsky and Irene Vodislavsky. He is an artist and they were lovers of art., He survived the Holocaust in Western Europe and they survived in Poland. Hofstadter's paintings are both landmarks to life and monuments to the dead, and so is the work of Vodislavskys, engaged in the transfer of the Holocaust legacy to the next generation..
The photos in the exhibition represent the feelings of these friends. One photo shows the picture of a mother, and through her reflected image we see additional elements -protection of her offspring. Another drawing shows a man's head full of many people coming and going, and in another, a bubble is drawn reflecting to all viewers his situation as an individual, as part of the family and part of human society. Hofstetter, through his creative force, tries turning every stone and idea into a way for Man to be acquainted with himself. And the couple Vodislavsky, represent the best of human kind ,a sympathetic ear, and friendship that supports the creative artist and his wife.
 

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