Judith Weinshall Liberman
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Judith Weinshall Liberman (; born 1929) is an Israeli artist who is known for the '' Holocaust Wall Hangings'', a series of sixty loose-hanging fabric banners of varying sizes created between 1988 and 2002 depicting the plight of the
Jewish people Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
and other minorities during the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.


Early life

Judith Weinshall Liberman was born in 1929 and grew up in
Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
,
Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...
(present-day
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
) during the years of the Holocaust. In 1947, she moved to America to attend college and received four American university degrees including a J.D. degree from the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...
and an LL.M. degree from the
University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparati ...
. In 1956, she turned her attention to the arts and began studying drawing, painting, sculpture, and other art mediums at the Art Institute of Boston (then called the School of Practical Art), the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, the DeCordova Museum School, the
Boston University College of Fine Arts The Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of Boston University. Founded in 1872 with the establishment of the College of Music, it is an institution that trains artists, scholars of th ...
and the
Massachusetts College of Art and Design Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...
.


Critical response to work

Judith Weinshall Liberman's ''Holocaust Wall Hangings'' have been recognized by publications and institutions such as ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
'', the Holocaust Teacher Resource Center, the ''
Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute ...
'' and the ''
Cleveland Jewish News The ''Cleveland Jewish News'' (the CJN) is a weekly Jewish newspaper headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The newspaper contains local, national, and international news of Jewish interest. History It was formed in 1964. I ...
''. Helen A. Harrison of the ''New York Times'' states that within the Holocaust Wall Hangings, "Abstraction and repetition are applied to the symbolism of repression, removing it from the realm of personal suffering and elevating it to the level of universal tragedy." Ori Soltes, art and theology teacher at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
and former director of the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., believes that the soft materials Weinshall Liberman uses in her work "provide an important contrast to the Holocaust tragedy." Soltes says, "Using that kind of material for something which is so harsh and hard-edged to my mind is sort of an interesting conceptual leap." In her article "Powerful Works on Fabric a Tribute to Holocaust," critic Fran Heller of the ''Cleveland Jewish News'' notes that "Liberman's color palette of red, gray and black symbolizes blood and fire, suffering, despair and death (and) it is both forceful and aesthetically moving."


Archives

The Judith Weinshall Liberman Papers, 1960–2003, a collection of photographs, slides, videos and manuscripts of panel discussions and exhibition installations relating to the ''Holocaust Wall Hangings'', has been catalogued by the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
's
Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...
. Weinshall Liberman's book ''Holocaust Wall Hangings'' (2002), a companion piece to the wall hanging collection, has been digitally archived in the Fine Arts Department at the
Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...
.


References


External links


''Holocaust Wall Hangings'' Online Gallery

"Anne Frank series of the Holocaust Wall Hangings, Artist Judith Liberman comments"

"The Holocaust Wall Hangings – an exhibition of textile artwork at the Decordova Museum"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liberman, Judith Holocaust commemoration University of Michigan Law School alumni Artists from Haifa Israeli women artists