Art as Witness: The Work and Remarkable Survival Story of Esther Lurie 

With Dr. Shay Pilnik, Director, Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Yeshiva University (JTS PhD ‘13)
In Commemoration of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)
The survival story of celebrated artist Esther Lurie (1913-1998), the only Israeli artist to win the prestigious Dizengoff Prize for Drawing twice in her career, was beyond remarkable. After she made aliyah and established herself as a prominent artist in young Tel Aviv, Lurie was caught up in the claws of the Hitlerite monster while visiting her sister. From that point on, she was driven by two motivations-to survive the Kovna Ghetto and several labor camps, and to bear witness to Nazi crimes through a series of brilliant, clandestine sketches and illustrations.