Exhibit delves into the spiritual meanings of the Hebrew letters
As she listened to the beautiful sounds of piano music during a concert at the East Valley JCC in March 2023, Violet Zilman had a vision of white Hebrew letters on canvas flowing on the walls of the multi-purpose room where the concert was held.
This vision inspired her to embark on a project of creating a collection of Hebrew letters, which led her on a journey of self discovery and healing as it developed into a symbol of strength, survival and resilience after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The exhibit will be on display at the EVJCC through spring 2026.
The Scottsdale self-taught artist, who was born in the Soviet Union, pursued degrees in linguistics, pedagogy and science and always had a love for art. “For me, art is a meditation, always rooted in spirituality, which I find essential to balance as exercise or a healthy diet,” she says. She began this new project by dipping pieces of fabric into Plaster of Paris and quickly shaping each letter on a canvas before the material dried.
She initially envisioned that the white designs would be on display in the multi-purpose room, but because that room is also used for an indoor play area for the center’s Early Learning Center, EVJCC leadership offered to display the project in the center’s lounge instead.
However, after bringing in an example of some of the letters, it was clear that the white pieces of art on the white walls of the lounge wouldn’t work.
Next, Violet had an idea of having the letters be colored black with gold highlights. In retrospect, she thinks the dark colors represented a dark period in her life. When her father-in-law was dying, he started sharing some of his traumatic childhood experiences as a victim of antisemitism that he had never shared with anyone before. “It moved me because he lived until 92 and he never spoke about anything like it ever.” Additionally, the war in Ukraine was happening and she was in touch with relatives who still live there. At the time, inspired by her father-in-law’s stories, she was also interviewing Holocaust survivors from Ukraine who shared their tragic childhood stories during the Holocaust.
When she brought a few samples of the dark letters into the EVJCC at the beginning of October 2023, it was determined that they looked too dark for the space and she returned home to reconsider what colors to try next.
“All the images became real. The past is now.
It was in the past then it became present right in front of my eyes.”
However, later that week the barbaric attack on Israel on Oct. 7 halted her plans. “I didn’t have anything left in me to continue with any creative projects after that,” she says.
As she watched the news reports from Israel, the horrific stories from the past that she was hearing from Holocaust survivors became even more real. Between the brutal attack and the global rise of antisemitism, “It’s like it was coming on from all directions. It was a very intense time. … All the images became real. The past is now. It was in the past then it became present right in front of my eyes.”
She has family members who live in Israel and she has visited areas in the south that were attacked so seeing the new coverage felt very surreal to her. During the months following Oct. 7, she was immersed in the news from Israel, following the Hebrew news reports, and was especially attached to praying for a good outcome for Ariel, 4, and Kfir Bibas, 9 months old. Besides their young ages, she also felt connected to them because they reminded them of her grandmother, who had the same red hair color. She was devastated when the news about their deaths was announced.
She turned to a series of Kabbalah lessons on YouTube, which featured Rabbi Abraham Twerski, OBM, teaching Kabbalah on a deep spiritual level, talking about the meaning of every Hebrew letter.
“The Hebrew letters are actually the GPS for the soul because they were given for a reason.
Every letter guides you through any moment in life.”
She remembered her unfinished project and decided to paint the letters as she was learning about each letter. “The Hebrew letters are actually the GPS for the soul because they were given for a reason,” she says. “Every letter guides you through any moment in life.”
By the time she finished painting the 22nd letter, she says she received her strength back. “I still have my emotions, but I understand my internal self much better because it’s a very interesting transformation when you start looking deep on the spiritual meaning of every single letter, what it means, and how you can reflect it on yourself. … It’s pretty much a very deep psychological healing that takes place when you start working letter by letter.”
She says she didn’t plan any of the colors she used and didn’t have an overall plan. She painted them randomly, not in any order and “just knew” the colors to use on each letter. “It was like all these white canvases became alive.”
At the start of her project, she thought her original vision, with the darker colors, was going to be dedicated to her father-in-law, “but it wasn’t meant to be for that.” Since he survived the Holocaust and lived until age 92, he was blessed, she explains. “But some kids didn’t get so lucky.”
She decided instead to dedicate her project to the Bibas brothers who “never had a chance to learn the Hebrew letters.”
The colors of The Bibas Brothers Collection ended up being bright and fun because they represent the children who perished and never had a chance to learn the letters, she says. “Behind them stand countless other children – from the Holocaust to centuries of persecution – who lost their lives simply for being Jewish.”
“Each of the 22 Hebrew letters flows across its canvas in bright colors mixed with metallic paint that catches light like something divine,” she writes in a description about the collection. “But the heart of each piece lies in the splashes of primary colors – bold reds, blues and yellow painted the way children naturally paint, messy and pure. These splashes represent all the young hands that will never hold brushes again, voices silenced before they could learn these sacred shapes.”
The collection is as much for the kids as it is for adults, she explains. “My main message is that in these dark times when our surroundings are not so friendly, we have to get back to the core and find inner strength. The strength comes when you know who you are and how to stand tall and strong despite what’s happening around you.”
As she writes in her collection description: “The Hebrew letters have survived everything – empires, hatred, unthinkable loss. They’ve endured through darkness, carrying forward wisdom and dreams across generations. In my work, they stand resilient against the chaos, beautiful and unbroken.”
-Leisah Woldoff
The exhibit is currently on exhibit in the EVJCC’s lounge, which includes a description of the meanings of the individual letters. Watch a video of the paintings here.
Artist Violet Zilman created this collection of Hebrew letters. (AI-generated image)
