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Dam Hamakabim

two-color screenprint, 8" x 10", 2023.  

(Originally made for Second State Press Member Print Exchange 2023)

As people, we abject, we discard, we forget. We get rid of things when they do not serve us anymore - an old t-shirt, a broken mug, an outdated idea. But what if letting go is not possible? As Jews we cannot let go of our history and our traditions. Our present is enmeshed with our past like the fibers of a beautiful tapestry. An ever evolving and questioning tapestry. In my work I seek to express this, exploring the meaning of what it means to be Jewish in this complicated present moment. 
 

Dam Hamakabim (2023) is a response to the global heartbreak experienced by Jews following the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel. I chose to express this through the form of a single flower, a wildflower native to the State of Israel often used as a symbol of mourning and unity. In Hebrew the flower is called “Dam Hamakabim,” the Blood of the Maccabees, because it is said that from the blood of the Maccabees this flower grew, its red leaves a reminder of what happened, how their blood seeped into the land. This print is a sad symbol of hope - of the power of heartbreak to bring us together and of the day when the bloodshed will end and there will be peace. 

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