Marsha Plafkin Art & Design's Art and Design Studio

PALESTINE

I visited Israel-Palestine during college in 1983 and resided there in 1987-1988 while studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I made two other trips, one as a Hillel Director in 1996, and another for my brother’s marriage to my Israeli sister-in-law in 1999-2000.

Since 2000 was my last visit, I have never seen the “Separation Wall” whose construction began in 2002 under Ariel Sharon. I have only read about the wall and seen photos of it.

Spanning some 440 miles and standing 26 to 30 feet high, this wall separates Jews from Palestinians and hides Israeli military abuses in the occupied territories. In 2011, I published my objections to the wall in the ART AS RESPONSA Blue Paper on Israel.

The wall represents about 2 million cubic meters of concrete that could have instead built schools, hospitals, libraries, restaurants, grocery stores, and homes. Jews are expected to remain silent about the wall or to justify it if we dare speak at all. Jews who object to Israeli apartheid are maligned as "self-hating", "not really Jewish”, “traitor”, or worse. Non-Jews are censured as "anti-Semites".

During my studies at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, we were required to take a class on the history of Jewish messianism with the UJ President Emeritus, Rabbi David Lieber. Lieber’s curriculum reviewed the concept of messiah from its first appearance in Torah through classical, medieval, pre-modern, and modern eras. He concluded his survey stating that, “Zionism is the new messianism.” His conclusion was not triumphant in the least, as Rabbi Lieber remained a man of modern faith who never chose to pursue Israeli citizenship (to make aliyah).

THE NAME OF ISRAEL

The name "Israel" first appears in Genesis 32:28, where Jacob spends a restless night struggling against an unnamed man and emerges at daybreak with permanent injury.

Following this ordeal and request for blessing, the Torah states that he “will no longer be Jacob, but will now be called Israel," a name which means wrestles with God.

We will recall from Genesis 27, that Jacob had obtained a material blessing meant for Esau by tricking their blind, aged father. Jacob fled to avoid Esau's wrath, and his fitful encounter with the unnamed man occurs on the eve of meeting Esau after a 20+ year estrangement.

The text also mentions that Jacob struggled with people -- v'im anashim.

כִּי-שָׂרִיתָ עִם אֱלֹהִים וְעִם-אֲנָשִׁים וַתּוּכָל

And with one other word -- va'tuchal -- the text concludes that Jacob prevailed.

Midrash Rabba teaches that Jacob had actually wrestled with Esau's "Guardian Angel". Accepting this interpretation, Rashi advances the idea that Esau now retroactively concedes the stolen birthright to Jacob.

Marsha Plafkin Hurwitz

February 21-March 5, 2026

ART AS RESPONSA applauds:

Givat Haviva Shared Art Center

https://givathaviva.org.il/en/shared-art-center/

Israelism Film Project

https://www.israelismfilm.com/

Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance

https://www.jamd.ac.il/en

Oasis Art Gallery

https://www.oasisofpeace.org/oasis-art-gallery

Polyphony Education in Nazareth