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  Susan Weinberg
  Studio 409




liminachal@gmail.com





The Silence Speaks Loudly

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In 2009 I spent six weeks in Eastern Europe. I went to study Yiddish at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute and to visit  the Belarus shtetl from which my grandmother had come.   With no great aptitude for languages, I didn't aspire to fluency, but I realized that Yiddish was an important part of a culture that no longer exists, the culture from which my family came.  I hoped to incorporate it into my artwork around my family history and cultural heritage.


In addition to the language program there was a cultural program led by two women in their 80s, both survivors.  They took us through the former ghetto and to the killing fields and told us their stories.  I was moved by their stories, but also disturbed.  I knew when they were no longer there, their stories would be lost.  I had already seen the rewriting of history.

in the course of my visit I had gone to the Vilnius Genocide Museum, housed in the former KGB and Gestapo headquarters.  In a city which had been 45% Jewish before the war, of which 95% were murdered, there was nothing about the Holocaust.  It wasn't denial, rather a sin of omission.  The focus was solely on the Soviet occupation.

 It was out of these observations that I felt I needed to develop artwork that would tell the stories and give the silence voice.


 





 







Click on the images to the right and below to view larger images and story

                         



Gedenken

     Gedenken - 2010
Acrylic on Canvas 72"x24"





       













Buried Truths II - 2010
Acrylic on Canvas 30"x24"
I Was Here - 2010
Acrylic on Canvas 24"x18"
Shalom Aleichem I - 2009
Acrylic on Board 32"x24"




Shalom Aleichem II  2010
Acrylic on Canvas 30"x24"
What is Left - 2010
Acrylic on Canvas 30"x24"
The Jews Liked Blue - 2010
Acrylic on Canvas 18"x24"



GrowLikeAnOnion
Afikomen
The Nation of Israel Lives 2009
Acrylic on Canvas 18"x24"

Grow Like an Onion 2009
Acrylic on Board 24"x16"
Afikomen 2010
Acrylic on Board 24"x32"



     




















    






















 

















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