The Star of David Project.
The Star of David or Magen David is the universal symbol of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. The star signifies our connection to the community and the lens through which we see the world.
The Star of David Project attempts to visually represent the terrible pain and enormous loss caused by the Nazi regime by depicting each person killed in the Holocaust as a star.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Jewish community of Europe lost two-thirds of its total population, changing the Jewish diaspora forever. An estimated six million men, women, children, babies, and the elderly were killed in the Holocaust. But as a society, we are beginning to forget the details. As survivors pass away, the responsibility of ensuring that the horrors of the Holocaust do not fade falls to the next generations. The Star of David project takes a moment to remember the lives lost, those stories that we know, and those that have been lost.
My process includes carefully drawing each star, remembering that each star is a life taken in the Holocaust (Shoah). Using paint pens and an 11x17 sheet of bristol board, I draw 20,000 Magen Davids. I painstakingly count each star to ensure accuracy. Before beginning a new sheet, I say the mourner’s kaddish to remember the people who perished and recite the Sh’ma when done to remind myself the Jewish people live on.
The sheer amount of stars cause overlapping and covering of one another. The bottom layer of the stars represents the soles lost without a trace. These were the people who died without a written record. The stars in yellow and gold that weave through the entire work represent the individuals we lost whose stories have been preserved through books, drawings, or living descendants.
The Star of David Project.
The exhibit will include 300, 11x17 works, each containing twenty thousand Stars of David, a total of six million when exhibited together. The exhibit can be rearranged and shown in several different ways, making it perfect for small and large spaces alike.
For example:
All 300 pieces, representing the estimated 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
40 pieces, representing the 800,000 Jews that died in the Ghettos from random shootings by the soldiers, lack of food, or rampant diseases.
50 pieces, the amount of Jews that perished in WWII that were from the former Soviet Union or the amount of Jews that died in Auschwitz-Birkenau alone.
75 pieces, representing the 1,500,000 Jewish children that died in the holocaust.
100 pieces, representing the 2,000,000 Jewish men, women, and children that died from the mass shooting operation. The Germans and their allies and collaborators carried out mass shooting operations and related massacres of Jews in more than 1,500 cities, towns, and villages across occupied Eastern Europe.
135 pieces, representing the 2,700,000 that died in the killing centers. These killing centers were called Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau
150 pieces, representing the 3 million Jews from Poland murdered throughout WW2 - 90% of the Polish Jewish community.
On Exhibit
January, 2025 Memphis Jewish Community Center, Shainberg Gallery, Memphis TN
March 3, 2025 - April 25, 2025 Chattanooga Jewish Cultural Center, Chattanooga TN
April 2025 - Gordon Jewish Community Center Nashville TN
April 2026 - May 2026 Alpert Jewish Community Center, Long Beach CA
If you are interested in booking this exhibit, please click the link below. The show will be ready for exhibition beginning April 2025.