Direct from Isreal - Yad Vashem Art Curator Eliad Rosenberg Wows Los Angeles in a Series of Lectures

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In a week-long series of lectures throughout Los Angeles, Yad Vashem Art Curator and Art Department Director Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg thrilled Los Angeles audiences with a presentation on the work of artists and stories from the period of the Holocaust.

Ms. Rosenberg, a world-renowned art expert and scholar, had her largest audience in Los Angeles at a special evening at the prestigious Skirball Cultural Center Auditorium on Thursday January 31, 2019. The center, which opened to the public in 1996, is devoted to sustaining Jewish heritage and American democratic ideals.

Direct from Israel, Ms. Rosenberg, a passionate advocate on preserving art from the Holocaust period, drew a large crowd to her lectures, where she shared photographs from the world's largest collection of Holocaust-related art. Yad Vashem houses the world's largest collection of Holocaust-related art with over 10,000 items. These works, some of which are on display in the Museum of Holocaust Art, were created by Jewish artists who were murdered during the Holocaust or by survivors and other artists after the Second World War. Ms. Rosenberg, who toured Los Angeles for a week, explained her unique journey to retrieve from oblivion artists who created art during the Holocaust and make their unique visual testimonies known to the world.

"It goes without saying that we are very pleased and so honored to have had Eliad Rosenberg visit Los Angeles in January," states Bill Bernstein, Director of Institutional Advancement – Western Region for the American Society for Yad Vashem. "The process of setting up the busy schedule for Ms. Rosenberg included community-wide programs, parlor meetings, meetings with students and parents of students, and ASYV major donors. The setting provided significant opportunity to develop relationships and meaningful connections to Yad Vashem."

Ms. Rosenberg is the author of, "Art from the Holocaust: 100 Artworks from the Yad Vashem Collection," which pays tribute to the fortitude of the human spirit during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, is the global center for Holocaust education, remembrance, research and documentation. The shown 100 drawings and paintings, a representative core of Yad Vashem's art collection were created in the camps, the ghettos, in hiding and by partisans. These rare artworks by some 50 artists, half of whom were murdered, reflect the tension between the cruel reality the artists experienced and their desire to take flight. Presented thematically, and supported by substantial research on the annals of the artists, the artworks shed light on the artists' experience under the harshest of circumstances.

"Most Jewish artists who created art during these horrific years did so at risk to their lives, in order to leave their testimonies for future generations," explains Ms. Rosenberg, "The fact that these Jewish artists and their subjects, who were persecuted and murdered, are being remembered in Berlin over 70 years later sends a clear message that their voices are still being heard and are a continuing source of inspiration."

Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev remarked: "It is clear that the Holocaust in general, and the idea of the indestructible human spirit in particular, has captured the interest of an international and intergenerational audience. Art is a unique medium that highlights the personal perspective of the horrors of the Shoah, and the attention it engenders illustrates the abiding commitment of the global community to keep the memory alive."

Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg has worked at Yad Vashem's Museums Division since 2003. She received her master's degree in Art History from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and studied Museology at the Tel Aviv University. She previously served as a researcher and lecturer at the Hebrew University's Center for Jewish Art.

SOURCE Eliad Rosenberg