Exhibit to feature artwork of Shoa survivors and their children

THE WORKS OF four living New Jersey artists — Holocaust survivors or the children of survivors — are on exhibit at JCC MetroWest’s Gaelen Gallery West on the Aidekman campus in Whippany, through Nov. 5.  

The display of 34 works in the “Generations” exhibit is sponsored by the Holocaust Council of Greater MetroWest NJ.

Sculptor Milton Ohring, a Teaneck resident who is a professor emeritus of materials engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, was a child survivor whose parents fled from Poland. They settled in New York, where he attended the High School of Music and Art. 

Lev Gal Wertman of Randolph, a graduate of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, is an artist who is preparing stained-glass windows to be installed at the Gottesman RTW Academy, the Jewish day school in his hometown where his children are students. He also works in oil paintings, drawings, sculpture, and tattoo ink on Japanese rice paper, sometimes depicting the numbers tattooed on prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. 

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His late father was a survivor who lost 76 members of his family during the Holocaust.

Joanie Schwarz of Westfield is a photographer who lost family members to the Nazis in Theresienstadt, Treblinka, and Auschwitz. By attending the council’s Lunch and Learn programs and other events, she has had the opportunity to photograph survivors in the Greater MetroWest area. Four of these photos are in the show. 

The father of artist Hanna Kesselman of Springfield was a German-born commercial artist who died in the concentration camp at Flossenburg. She was a hidden child, aided by OSE, a French-Jewish humanitarian organization that saved hundreds of refugees. Her paintings on display are colorful still lifes. 

For more information contact Barbara Wind, director of the Holocaust Council of Greater MetroWest NJ, at 973-929-3067.