Plate 11. “She” Stood By Us

This oval design is an intricate papercut.
1. The top left corner portrays Jacob, Rachel, and Leah standing before Jacob’s uncle Lavan who deceived him. What gave Jacob hope through these years of loneliness and disappointment. A promise: “Your descendants will be as the dust of the earth; you will spread out to the west and east . . .” (Genesis 28:14-15). 2. The top right corner depicts Amalek’s slaughter of the Israelites as they depart from Egypt (Deuteronomy 25:17-18). Here again, God’s earlier promise to Avram gives the people strength to continue on their journey. 3. We move from Amalek to his descendant, Haman, the villain of the Purim narrative. In the lower left corner, King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther ponder the noose of Haman, who sought to annihilate the Jewish people in the Persian empire. The covenantal promise gives Esther courage to approach the King and lends the people courage to confront Haman. 4. This image in the lower right-hand corner recalls the Shoah, Holocaust, which strained the Jewish people’s trust in Divine Promise. The image juxtaposes barbed wire, yellow badges, and flames of Kristallnacht. On the top in small yet golden letters the word “hatikvah,” The Hope, is inscribed, alluding to the hope that enabled people to survive, and foreshadowing the birth of the modern State of Israel.