Givat Haviva Voice

Photos & text: Lydia Aisenberg   Yuval Danieli is an Israeli artist with a particular penchant for researching the history of art in the kibbutz movement, not surprising when one learns that the kibbutz born Danieli is the Director of Images at the Yad Yaari Research and Documentation Center at Givat Haviva. “Yad Yaari was established to preserve and promote the intellectual assets of two key movements in Israel’s history, Hashomer Hatzair, the first Zionist youth movement founded in Eastern Europe in 1911, and Kibbutz Artzi, a federation of 85 kibbutzim that was founded in 1927,” explains Danieli, a member of the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz of Hamapil, founded in 1945. Nowadays those kibbutzim, although still Hashomer Hatzair affiliated, are incorporated into the United Kibbutz Movement representing a total of some 270 communities throughout Israel. Danieli’s rather large office at the Givat Haviva campus is crammed with books, files and artifacts of over...

Photos & text: Lydia Aisenberg Childhood friends from Newcastle, England, Judith Sischy and Lynn Leon Ross were among the many visitors to the recently opened HAMSIN-50 exhibition at the Givat Haviva Collaborative Art Center & Peace Gallery. The friends had visited the Givat Haviva campus in the past, but never together.  Lynn, who emigrated to Israel in 2010 and lives in Hofit, a rural community in central Israel, actually had an exhibtion of her very powerful art work - entitled Identities - shown at the Givat Haviva gallery in 1995 after which the exhibition moved to Haifa for another successful showing.  Lynn’s 1995 solo exhibition of drawings and photographs was officially opened at Givat Haviva by the then British Ambassador Andrew Burns who was not only very impressed with the British born artists creations but also at the time made very positive comments about Givat Haviva’s achievements and aspirations for the future.  He also presented a...