Oyfn Pripetshik– acrylic and metallic on canvas, 47″ x 27″, 2024
Oyfn Pripetshik (“On the Hearth”) is a Yiddish song written by M.M. Warshawsky (1848–1907), about a rabbi teaching young students the Hebrew alphabet (aleph-bet).
By the end of the 19th century it was one of the most popular songs of Central and Eastern European Jews, and remains etched in the musical memory of pre-Holocaust Europe. It is used by Steven Spielberg for the Red Coat Girl in Schindler’s List.
Here, I’ve replaced the words “Torah” and “Hebrew” with “Yiddish” in the lyrics. The colorful “sparks” seen through the cell represent the Divine Spark that continues in each of us, from generation to generation (L’dor V’dor).