Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg caused a stir on social media Wednesday by revealing an imposing statue of his wife, Priscilla Chan, on Instagram. The towering sculpture, standing approximately 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall, was commissioned by the Facebook founder as a tribute to what he described as "the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife."

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Crafted by New York-based artist Daniel Arsham, the statue features a striking silver and blue color scheme. The piece, which appears to be situated in a residential garden beneath a tree, depicts Chan with a flowing silver garment draped over and behind a teal-colored figure.

The unveiling quickly captured the internet's attention, with users drawing comparisons to characters from the film "Avatar" and playfully commenting on Zuckerberg's reputation as a devoted husband. Chan herself responded to her husband's Instagram post with a lighthearted comment: "The more of me the better?" accompanied by a heart emoji.

In the shared image, the real-life Chan is seen standing beside her statuesque counterpart, sipping from a mug that matches the light blue hue of the sculpture. The juxtaposition of the living Chan with her larger-than-life likeness added to the buzz surrounding the piece.

While Zuckerberg cited Roman traditions as inspiration for the commission, experts note that statues in ancient Rome often served to honor deceased loved ones or "to refer to significant relatives and to make meaningful associations," according to the National Museums Liverpool.

Zuckerberg and Chan, who tied the knot in 2012, are parents to three daughters. The couple's relationship has often been a subject of public interest, given Zuckerberg's high-profile role in the tech industry.

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Zurich's prestigious Kunsthaus Zurich art museum has announced the temporary removal of five paintings from its ongoing exhibition showcasing the Emil Bührle Collection. This decision comes as the institution investigates potential links between these artworks and Nazi-era looting during World War II.

The collection, named after German-born Swiss industrialist Emil Bührle, has long faced scrutiny regarding the provenance of its holdings. Bührle amassed a vast collection of approximately 600 artworks, many of which were acquired during the war years when the Nazis systematically plundered cultural treasures across Europe.

The artworks under investigation include renowned masterpieces such as Claude Monet's "Jardin de Monet à Giverny," Gustave Courbet's "Portrait of the Sculptor Louis-Joseph," Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's "Georges-Henri Manuel," Vincent van Gogh's "The Old Tower," and Paul Gauguin's "La route montante."

In a statement, the foundation board overseeing the Emil Bührle Collection expressed its commitment to "seeking a fair and equitable solution for these works with the legal successors of the former owners, following best practices." According to Stuart Eizenstat, the US Secretary of State's special advisor on Holocaust issues, it is estimated that over 100,000 paintings and countless other cultural objects stolen during the Nazi era have yet to be returned to their rightful owners or heirs.

The decision to temporarily remove the paintings follows the publication of new guidelines aimed at addressing the persistent issue of unreturned cultural property stolen during the Nazi regime. These guidelines were developed by the US State Department to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Washington Conference Principles, which outlined a framework for the restitution of Nazi-confiscated art.

While the foundation board acknowledged the potential application of these guidelines to the five artworks in question, it stated that a sixth work from the collection, Edouard Manet's "La Sultane," would be considered separately. The foundation expressed willingness to offer financial compensation to the estate of Max Silberberg, a German Jewish industrialist whose extensive art collection was forcibly auctioned by the Nazis before his murder at the Auschwitz death camp.

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Heinz Böhme met Ludwig Jonas all the way back in 1984. Böhme, then a doctor in his 50s, decided to organize all the art brochures and catalogs he had collected during his many trips to conferences and lectures around the world. As he was throwing out a heap he deemed unimportant, a red catalog caught his eye. 

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Böhme pulled it out of the bin. On the cover of the brochure the name "Jonas'' appeared in white, that of a fairly unknown painter at the time, and on the pages of the catalog, pictures of an exhibition held in Berlin under the auspices of the Israeli Embassy in Germany, including photographs of the artist's paintings. The unconventional way how the works were presented piqued Böhme's curiosity and made him wonder who Jonas was.

Jonas' biography revealed that he and Böhme had a few things in common. Böhme was mainly interested in the fact that Jonas - a Jew born in 1887 in Bromberg, which was in East Prussia at the end of the 19th century and is now part of Poland - studied medicine like him, but decided to abandon the promising profession in favor of developing his skills as a painter.

In 1909, Jonas joined the School of Applied Arts in Berlin, studied with some of the greatest German painters of the time, continued his studies in Paris, and after World War I, when he served as a volunteer in field clinics, became one of the most promising impressionists in Germany.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Jonas fled to France. From there he immigrated two years later to pre-state Israel and settled in Jerusalem. He continued to paint and exhibit his works, but died of an illness at the early age of 55, more or less around the time Böhme discovered him and his work.

Due to WWII and the persecution of Jews, Jonas' artistic career was cut short and his name was almost completely erased. After his death, his widow Lottie established an art gallery in their Jerusalem home. She would raffle off Jonas' paintings, to encourage local art enthusiasts to visit. In the 1950s the house was demolished, and the gallery moved to another location.

After discovering Jonas' works, "I started looking for his paintings," Böhme, 91, told Israel Hayom. "To date, I have purchased about a dozen of his works. Jonas painted a great many portraits, and faces have always interested me. Perhaps because of my medical practice." It fascinated me how his art career was cut short, and I asked myself whether other artists met the same fate. 

And so, following in the footsteps of Jonas' story, Böhme began a journey of over four decades after the "lost generation" – artists whose professional careers faded in between the two world wars, because they were persecuted by the Nazis for being Jews or were political opponents of the regime. 

Böhme began to acquire the works of these artists at auctions as well as from collectors and relatives. After accumulating several hundred works, he decided to establish in his current city of residence, Salzburg, a museum where his private collection will be displayed, the Museum "Art of the Lost Generation," the only of its kind in Europe.  

His collection consists of about 600 works. Although established five years ago and located in the heart of Salzburg's old city - not far from Mozart's birthplace - this unique museum is almost unknown outside a small circle of enthusiasts. For example, it only recently hosted a senior official of the Salzburg municipality, who learned of the museum's existence from local TV. 

In his almost detective-like research work, Böhme revealed not only the works of the "lost generation," but also their life stories, which often ended in the most tragic way.

One such story is that of Rudolf Levy, who was born in the Prussian city of Stettin (modern-day Poland) in 1875 to a well-established Jewish family. He moved to Berlin, where he first worked as a carpenter before enrolling at the age of 20 at the art academy in Karlsruhe, and later at a private painting school in Munich, where he met, among others, the renowned painter of his generation, Paul Klee. Later, Levy continued his studies at Henri Matisse's studio in Paris.

In WWI, Levy volunteered in the German military and fought in its ranks on French soil. After the war, he established his own painting school in Berlin, but when the Nazis came to power he left the country. Many of his paintings were defined by the Nazis as "degenerate art" and confiscated. Levy came to the United States, but before WWII returned to Europe yet again, and when the war broke out he found himself in Italy unable to leave due to financial reasons.

Despite his friends' warnings, he continued to appear in public, and in 1943, was arrested after being captured in Florence by Gestapo agents posing as art dealers. In January 1944, Levy was transferred to a concentration camp in northern Italy, which was a transit camp to Auschwitz.

Samuel Solomonovich Granovsky, born in 1889 in the city now known as Dnipro in Ukraine, studied painting in Odesa and Munich, and in 1910 settled in Montparnasse, the artists' quarter of Paris at the time. Alongside his work as a painter, he was also a model for other painters and earned a living as a cleaner in a cafe.

Granovsky quickly became known as a talented painter, mainly thanks to his nude paintings, and he was very active in various artist circles in the City of Light. In 1942, he was arrested by the French police as part of the Vel' d'Hiv' Roundup – the most extensive arrest operation of Jews in occupied France – and sent to the Drancy concentration camp, and from there to his death in Auschwitz.

Mommie Schwarz, who was born in 1876 in the Netherlands, also studied painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp and was considered a promising abstract painter, when he was arrested with his wife by the Nazis in Amsterdam in 1942 and murdered a few days later in Auschwitz.

And there is also the story of Martha Bernstein, daughter of Julius Bernstein, professor of physiology and rector of Halle University in Germany, and of pianist Sophia Levy.

Born in 1874, Bernstein grew up in Imperial Germany, which did not allow women to study painting in higher education institutions and state academies, but only in private schools, and where a woman choosing a career as a painter was extremely frowned upon. 

She first studied at a private school in Munich, and from there she moved to Paris, which embraced female painters from all over Europe, and she also studied at the Matisse Academy. When she returned to Berlin she joined the Secession, an artistic protest movement against institutional art, and was a significant part of the modernist movement in German art.

In 1923, Bernstein married conductor Max Christian Neuhaus, who later became the music editor of the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter. She was persecuted by the Nazis for being Jewish and a painter and managed to find refuge in Switzerland, where one of her two brothers lived. After the end of the war, she returned to Germany, where she died in 1955.

The case of the painter Alfred Schwarzschild is quite unusual: he was born in 1874 to a wealthy Jewish family from Frankfurt. From a young age, he showed artistic talent, and in adulthood, he was sent to study at the art academies of Karlsruhe and Munich. He began exhibiting regularly even before WWI, after which he became a highly sought-after portrait painter among Munich's elite.

His success was interrupted when the Nazis came to power. To make a living, Schwarzschild switched to painting landscape postcards. Thanks to his great talent, the Nazis allowed him to continue this activity, and also ordered postcards from him, on the condition that he would not sign them. In 1936, Schwarzschild managed to immigrate with his family to Britain. For a while, he was detained on the Isle of Man, but upon his release moved to London, where he died in 1948.

His daughter, Theodora Starker, served as a model for the most popular postcards Schwarzschild created for the Nazis. Today, aged 90, she lives in New Zealand, and has transferred her father's entire artistic estate to the Museum "Art of the Lost Generation."

"The primary goal of the museum is to rediscover the works of these artists and present them to the general public," Böhme said. "The creativity of these artists was broken during the Nazi period, and we are bringing it back to life. But what is important, beyond the exposure of the works, is the exposure of the unknown biographies of the artists – what happened to them, what they experienced, and what their fate was. My intention was not only to bring people to the museum to see these works of art, but to teach them about what happened at that time. Through the works and the stories of life, the past can be explained better, and this is our contribution to the present.

"People ask, 'How can we fight antisemitism?' This is one of the ways. To create interest in history in a different way, and not to retell what is already known. Here we create a different basis for coping: with each painting, we tell the accompanying life story, which is sometimes reflected in the painting as well, and people develop different attention. Locating the works takes a lot of time. It's painstaking. We search all over the world.

"Today we have five art historians working with us. There is a person in the US who sends me emails several times a week, with information about places where you can find works by artists from the lost generation. Some people donate works they have in their possession. Some wish to remain anonymous. In the past, these works could be purchased cheaply. Today, they already say at auctions 'If Böhme is interested in it, there is a reason for it', and the prices are rising.

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"It is important to note that we are not a Jewish museum. Most of the artists were Jews, but there are also communist artists and non-Jewish artists who were persecuted by the Nazis. We do not limit ourselves to Jewish artists, nor do we collect works of the well-known artists of the time. I am interested in what happened to the disciples of famous painters. For example, Max Beckmann. Who knows who his disciples were? They are not shown in museums and experts do not know about them. We have collected 90 works by his students, and we are planning an exhibition of them in the coming months."

Although Böhme himself prefers not to highlight this, he too belongs to the "lost generation." He was born in Leipzig in 1932, a few months before the Nazis came to power in Germany. To this day, he does not speak of his family's story during the Holocaust. 

"This collection is also intended to commemorate my family," he said. Böhme also expressed concern for the future of the collection and the museum. "Until now, I have covered all the expenses out of my own pocket. There is no support, not from the Austrian government, not from the state of the province, not from the municipality of Salzburg. This initiative, and the story it conveys, should be passed onto future generations."

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A California man and a Spanish museum locked in a dispute over a valuable impressionist masterpiece stolen by the Nazis should be able to agree on one thing, Justice Stephen Breyer said Tuesday during arguments in the case at the Supreme Court.

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"Can everyone agree that this is a beautiful painting?" Breyer asked near the end of an hour of arguments. The painting is a streetscape, now worth millions, by French impressionist Camille Pissarro.

The case itself is not directly about ownership of the painting but about how to decide the case, which has been going on since 2005. Lower courts had sided with the museum.

On the other side is San Diego resident David Cassirer. His great-grandmother Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, a German Jew, at one time owned the Pissarro oil painting. The 1897 piece, whose title translates to "Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain," is one of a series of 15 that Pissarro painted of a Paris street as seen from his hotel window.

In 1939, in order to get visas for herself and her husband to leave Germany, Neubauer was forced to surrender the piece to a Nazi art appraiser. She was paid about $360, well below the painting's value, and the money went into an account she was blocked from accessing.

The painting changed hands a number of times since then but is now in the collection of a Spanish museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid, which has fought to retain it. It has been said to be worth more than $30 million.

Lower courts found the museum to be the lawful owner of the painting while also criticizing Spain for not living up to commitments to return Nazi-looted art.

Even if Cassirer wins at the high court, and he has the backing of the Biden administration, a lower court decision saying Spanish law applies in the case may mean he ultimately loses, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.

"I believe the district court said that both California law and federal common law would adopt Spanish law. Why is it that we're here if you lose under both?" she asked Cassirer's attorney David Boies. Boies said a federal appeals court didn't address the issue of California law.

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Both Sotomayor and Boies were participating remotely, Sotomayor from her office – presumably because of coronavirus concerns – and Boies by telephone because of a positive coronavirus test.

Boies is the third attorney to argue by phone because of a positive test since the court returned to hearing arguments in person in October after more than a year and a half hearing arguments by phone. The court is not allowing the public to attend arguments, and arguing attorneys must test negative.

For many years the Pissarro painting was believed to have been lost or destroyed during the war. In 1958 Neubauer reached a monetary settlement with the German government, but she didn't give up rights to try to pursue the painting if it turned up.

In fact, the painting had traveled to the United States, where it spent 25 years in the hands of different collectors before being purchased in 1976 by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza of Lugano, Switzerland. In 1993, the painting was one of 775 works the baron sold to Spain for more than $300 million. The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, a renovated palace, houses the collection.

In 2000, Neubauer's grandson Claude Cassirer discovered that the painting was not lost but on display in the museum. Spain rejected his attempts to get it back, however, and he ultimately sued in the United States. Claude Cassirer died in 2010. It's his son David who is now fighting for the piece's return.

The case is David Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, 20-1566.

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Artists from the United Arab Emirates and Israel are displaying their Hebrew and Arabic calligraphic art in a first-of-its-kind exhibition at the Jerusalem Theater, to run from Nov. 20 to Dec. 30.

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The exhibition, titled "Maktoub," which means both "written" and "destined" in Arabic, features works from 10 calligraphy artists (five from Israel and five from the UAE), according to a press statement.

The exhibition is co-curated by Chama Mechtaly, who is based in Dubai, and Lenore Cohen Mizrachi, who is based in Jerusalem.

"Lenore is a Syrian-Jewish artist from Brooklyn who worked most of her life on Arabic calligraphy. And I grew up in a Muslim context in Casablanca, Morocco, and lived in the UAE for the past five years but always worked on Hebrew calligraphy and indigenous North African Jewish art," Mechtaly told Jewish News Syndicate.

Describing her and Mizrahi's art as "conceptually mirror images of one another's," Mechtaly said their works "express this deep longing for the other side of our culture that has been underrepresented or repressed in our communities and yet completely defined how our cultures evolved, where Islam and Judaism lived in close proximity and nurtured one another."

Following the Abraham Accords, it was Mizrahi who reached out to Mechtaly with the idea for a collaboration.

"Lenore and I met online many years ago as we both work on [Middle Eastern] art from completely different spaces, but when the accords were announced she reached out to me to say that her favorite calligraphy instructors, whom she met in New York City, were from Dubai, and wanted to see if we could create a residency for artists from Israel and the UAE to collaborate physically for the first time," said Mechtaly.

Mechtaly said she expects more such collaborations.

"This was the first grassroots cultural initiative between the two countries, but I know that there is a genuine interest to advance meaningful cultural collaboration from governments, cultural institutions and individuals in both," she said.

The second part of "Maktoub," according to Mechtaly, is a residency program planned for the UAE in 2022 that for the first time will bring Israeli and UAE artists together to work in the same physical space.

"What happens going forward will depend on how committed we all are to deepening the social implications of the peace deals and setting the right foundation for sustainable peace in the region," she said.

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The exhibition was sponsored by the British Embassy in Israel, and American philanthropists Jon and Dina Leader.

British Ambassador Neil Wigan said in the press statement: "Calligraphy and the written word have vital importance for Jewish and Islamic cultures and religions. 'Maktoub' is a natural fit to be the first exhibition presenting collaborations between Israeli and Emirati artists, and that's why we at the British Embassy are delighted to support it."

Eitan Charnoff, an Israeli-American who has been exporting medical technology to the UAE for the past four years, helped organize the event.

"'Maktoub' can serve as a reminder for those of us in the commercial space that the Abraham Accords are much deeper than just economic opportunity but are a rich bridge to reconnect our region," he said.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The war for the planet amid the global warming and climate crisis, which has propelled environmental stories to the front pages of newspapers and the top of news programs, has also reached the art world.

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Israeli artist Oren Fischer recently finished a 320-square-meter (3,444 square-foot) mural titled "It's in Our Hands" in Kiryat Hamelacha in Tel Aviv as part of an international art project called "Hope through action" to mark 50 years of activity for the Greenpeace environmental organization.

Within the framework of the project, gigantic murals will appear in 12 countries around the world as a call to environmental action.

Video: Yair Zimmerman

At the center of Fischer's mural is a huge, humanized earth, with paintings depicting the complexity of its existential state through the use of humorous images and texts addressing pollution, wars, forcible takeover of resources by politicians, corrupt tycoons and more.

At the bottom of the piece are a line of people holding the world in their hands, a tribute to Atlas kneeling under the load of the universe.

Fischer himself, a resident of Tel Aviv's Shapira neighborhood, explained his work: "Painting is about taking responsibility, and understanding that people have the power to change reality with their own hands and shape the change they want to take place in the world."

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As a model of creative recycling in one of the most densely populated places on earth, a Gaza Strip cafe is serving up a healthy dose of environmentalism alongside its signature morning coffee.

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The beachside venue is part of the "Sea is Ours" co-operative, a complex built of reused wooden poles, plastic jugs, tires and broken bricks by local playwright Ali Mhana and a group of friends.

"My mother wanted me to become a physician," said Mhana, whose office there features a door off a refrigerator and windows that used to be washing machine doors.

Video: Reuters

"I don't have to be a doctor for humans. I can be the doctor of the sea, a doctor of the community that suffers several illnesses."

Dressed in a blue uniform, Mhana aims to ease at least some of those conditions through activities at a site that also houses a library, theatre and open event spaces where young and old can learn about conserving the environment.

"Jeans became plant vessels and a fan became a light decoration," said mother-of-four Haneen Assamak after learning how things she used to throw out can be reused.

"We planted in empty jars, and the bottles were filled with sand and lights," said Assamak, who now has a corner at home where she collects objects to be brought to Mhana for recycling.

"To me, this is happiness," she told Reuters, sitting on a colorful chair made of car tires.

Mhana said children visiting the site, which was provided by the Gaza municipality, instinctively understood the need to protect the environment.

"The recipe comes from them. When I ask what we can do to treat the sea, they say we can have a cleaning campaign, hold signs and go down and talk to people," he told Reuters.

A well as bringing in other material for recycling in lieu of payment, customers seeking to rent an open space for an event can also volunteer an hour of their time to help pick up litter at the beach.

A Gaza Environment Quality Authority official said 2,000 tons of solid waste is collected in the Gaza Strip every day. Over half of it comes from homes, and thousands of Palestinians earn money selling material to recycling factories.

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How can 150 thousand office rubber bands help rehabilitate a compromised neural network? What happens to "phobic" water drops? And how are both related to the human psyche? Can 16 violinists prove the Chaos theory?

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Scientists and artists ventured on an explorative journey that culminated in co-created work now on display at the new Nanotechnology Institute at Bar-Ilan University.

The Fetter Museum of Art and Nanoscience offers a new museum experience that features artwork generated as part of the evolving collaboration between artists and scientists. The piece on exhibit expose the visitors to the live, dynamic research at dozens of BIU labs and the dialogue between researchers and artists. The art pieces are on display between the institute's labs, public areas, and elsewhere.

The museum was founded with the vision of allowing researchers and artists to join forces in discussing the invisible nano-world and the far-reaching implications of nano research on our visible world.

On Thursday, July 8, the museum will unveil the "New Languages" exhibit, which features transdisciplinary works that introduce the unique language and syntax that artists and scientists use to communicate. Pieces on show were co-created over the course of three years.

The exhibit features work from the following artist-scientist pairs: Mahmood Kaiss associates wood and the arabesque motif with the spatial formation of nanocarbon tubules researched by Prof. Adi Salomon.

A work by sound artist Elad Schneiderman and Prof. Moti Friedman thwarts the synchronization of 16 violinists, thereby bumping on a new scientific discovery involving human chaos.

Vardi Bobrow's work consists of 15 thousand office rubber bands tied together following research on the growth of defective neurons by Prof. Orit Shefi.

Artist Caroline Maxwell used saltwater from the Dead Sea and Utah Salt Lake, crystallized over several years through nanometric processes, creating a point of departure for new research by Dr. Gili Taguri-Cohen, who uses X-rays to explore crystalline formations.

Eili Levy created a universe for a water drop that moves on hydrophobic surfaces, produced at the lab of Prof. Shlomo Margel. The waterdrop track serves as an allegory for the journeys undertaken by the human soul.

The exposure to research and disease discovery via light projections and using gold nanoparticles at Prof. Dror Fixler's lab motivated artist Ela Goldman to create an engaging installation that offers viewers new experiences with motion and revolutions.

Exhibition curator Tal Yizrael, says, "We ventured on a journey to conceptually and technically distant worlds, which are at the same time very close to the essence of our being. In so doing, we opened a window to the wonderland of the invisible. Like art, nanoscience delves deep into substances and essence, allowing us to discover new phenomena and universes."

The Bar-Ilan Institute of Nanotechnology and advanced materials (BINA) was founded in 2007 as a scientific community that conceives, invents, and develops concepts, materials, processes, and technologies applied to new methods, approaches, and technologies and applications. BINA comprises 71 world-class laboratories and an innovative scientific service available to the entire scientific community. In addition to academic collaborations, BINA has partnerships with several multinational corporations.

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As Israel's skies reopen, every person who arrives or leaves the Jewish state via Ben Gurion International Airport starting will be able to attend a unique exhibition celebrating the diversity that underpins Israeli society.

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The message of the "Hamsa Aleinu" exhibit is "to show how Israel's diversity is an integral part of its story and ethos, both within its borders and in the Jewish world."

The project was created by Vibe Israel, a non-profit dedicated to improving Israel's reputation worldwide, in cooperation with the President's Residence.

"Hamsa Aleinu" was inspired by President Reuven Rivlin's program "Israeli Hope," which aims to strengthen statehood and establish partnership between the four main sectors that comprise Israeli society: secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs. The project also includes the fifth tribe, which Rivlin emphasized in a 2017 speech to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly – the global Jewish community.

Speaking of the upcoming exhibition, Rivlin said: "I am happy that as we return to normal, all those walking along the concourse here at Ben-Gurion airport, on their way to their flights, will pass the Hamsa Aleinu exhibit. They will pause for a moment, look at the pictures, and will get to know the people who live and breathe true partnership. And when they take off for other countries, they will remember where we come from and that we come back home here, the home of everyone."

Founder and CEO of Vibe Israel Joanna Landau said: "At a time when the world is facing such turmoil, the hamsa [palm-shaped symbol] reminds us to celebrate our similarities despite our differences, not to lose hope, and to focus on coming together rather than pulling apart."

The physical exhibit will be accompanied by a digital campaign, #HamsaAleinu, to amplify the message of diversity globally.

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During the Holocaust, she says, she and her family were sent to a labor camp, from which they escaped and managed to make it back to the area where they had lived. They found various hiding places – including the forest, and with gentile families.

"For two years, we lived underground, nine people underneath a pigpen," Trister says.

In 1950, Trister made aliyah.

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"At first, we lived in a ma'abra [immigrant camp] in Kfar Saba. Mom and Dad got typhus there and were hospitalized. I remember it as a very hard time, because I was far away. I thought it would be a day or two, but it was a few weeks. After the Holocaust, it was a major blow. I stayed in tent and cried."

Now, as the novel coronavirus outbreak is posing a new kind of threat to the Israeli population, Trister is confined to her home.

"It's very hard for me. Hard isn't the word – the distance makes me cry. When I'm alone, I remember the loneliness, my mother and father, and my husband, Shlomo, who died four and a half months ago," she says.

"I'm used to being an active person, going out, speaking to students, painting. Every day, I [usually] walk to our local community center and meet my friends. Now, I'm forced to stay home alone. Every morning I exercise on at home, water the plants, take care of the apartment, and then I sit down to write or paint my memories.

"I have a son who takes care of me. He comes and does my shopping. The rest of the kids also call, but it's terribly hard not seeing them."

Despite everything she has experienced in her life, Trister says she is "an optimist by nature."

"What we went through dwarfs everything. We might be stuck at home, but we have the freedom of being in Israel. We survived the Holocaust. In the end, we won. We'll beat corona, and get through it. We are strengthening everyone around us and taking strength from them. It will all be over – they'll find a cure and we'll go back to our daily routines. We overcame everything, and so will you – we owe it to future generations.

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