RESPONDING TO THE NOW.

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Creative Director

Mia Hancock

 

Poetry Editors

Emmy Roday

Elizabeth Ruty Shehter 

Gillian Egusquiza

 

Prose Editors

Alex Tetarevsky

Liel Asulin 

Maia Dori

Tamara Rosin 

 

Visual Art Editors

Tamara Rosin 

Tania Azaryad

Shock, rage, hope, despair, and most of all, grief. In the wake of the barbaric attacks that took place on October 7 and the ongoing war in Gaza, all of us face the immense task of making sense of this painful new reality. 

We watch the news, doom scroll, cry, debate, and try to breathe. We create. We insist on words, on composition, on extracting the tormenting swirl of emotions within and making something tangible from it — a release that can be shared and experienced by others. We write stories and poetry. We paint, take photos, draw, design. In the darkest of days, we insist on creation. We know that to be human is to create, so when it seems as though humans have lost their humanity, we do what we can to restore it. And just as importantly, we share what we create, knowing this is essential to building and rebuilding community, forging understanding, and facilitating healing. 

That is what this digital magazine is all about. The artwork and writing in each installation represent people’s raw and real feelings and experiences since the start of the war. 

We will be updating the magazine every month, and we are accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Click here for more information on how to submit. We hope you find some connection and healing from reading this magazine. 

With love,
The WRITE-HAUS team

Layers of The Unseen 01, Photograph

Mona Haj

Layers of The Unseen 02, Photograph

Mona Haj

Detail 01, Photograph

Ronit Holtz

MEDITATION

Daniel Niv

And for a moment, I want

only my pain to feel. To break

the connection that binds us

by breath and heartbeat.

I ask: Where does my pain end

and yours begin? Where to untangle the end of me

and the start of you? Where to mark

these boundaries of separation?

The mute voice of wisdom whispers: Silly human!

You silly little human.

I grit my teeth. I breathe. I feel my heartbeat.

I breathe. I feel my heartbeat.

I breathe. I feel your heartbeat.

I ask: Where do my love and your love meet?

Where to tangle the ends of me and the starts of you?

Where to heal, where to heal?

Where to hold so I am you and you are me?

U

H

E

S

s

C

N

S

SUCHNESS

Lior Maayan

We were not born to be good,

we were destined to survive

A box of genes in the world

Formed the self

And self created God

And God saw good

and like in a movie that is shown backward from the end to the beginning

All the good we are

Is in spite,

Not because.

 

 

Untitled

Photograph by Diana Dawahdi Shalash

Artwork by Mona Haj

It Shall Pass, Ballpoint Pen Drawing edited Digitally

Mona Haj

Bring Them Back, Paper Collage/Digital

Aida Bechar

SPILLED MILK

Leeor Margalit

Dedicated to Dudy Laniado: a dairy farmer who, after hearing of the terror attacks on Kibbutz Nir Oz, risked heavy fire to milk and feed the cows.

Suddenly, you wake up and you mourn the little girl you just met in your dreams.

Suddenly you put down the dish you were washing and ask yourself,

“Who will milk the cows tomorrow morning?”

You are aware that there’s an ongoing hostage situation but –

who will feed the cats?

And you know that people have been slaughtered, you do

but suddenly, while driving to the grocery store, you pull off to the side of the road and you

wonder what will happen to the fruit ripening in the fields, no one there to harvest it, left alone to

fall into the bloodstained earth and rot.

And who will milk the cows tomorrow morning?

They Soon Will Become Angels, Oil on Canvas

Moriya Kaplan

Yarden Roman, Digital Illustration

Didi Kfir

Things That Words Cannot Describe,

Digital Illustraion

Didi Kfir 

A WORD

NO ONE

REMEMBERS

Bruce Black

I live thousands of miles

away from the war

yet the bombs that fall

shatter the peace here

the same way they shatter

the buildings in Gaza.

And though I don’t watch

the images on TV of

the crumbled concrete

blocks or the bodies

of the dead dragged

out of the rubble,

I weep for the lives lost,

especially for the children.

Each day the war goes on

and more people are killed

and more people die and

there’s more destruction,

each day is another lost

opportunity to seek peace,

to end the madness.

And here I sit at my desk

thousands of miles away

praying for the hostages

held captive for weeks—

not knowing if they’re still alive,

if they’re being fed and cared for,

not knowing if they’ll be released safely.

I don’t know anything except

that I wish for their safe return

and pray for an end to the killing

and long for peace—a word

no one remembers.

 

Freedom Rally, Watercolor and Acrylic in sketchbook

Marina Grechanik

even our tears will fill the trunk of a tree

Sarina Shohet

The planet is healing

and like all fevers before

they break, it rises from

core to mantle where

picture frames line a mass ofrenda

populating every day with enemies.

 

Murder means nothing to the soil that

it feeds.

Bring Me Back, Paper Collage

Aida Bechar

Freedom Now Rally, Watercolor and colored pencils in sketchbook

Marina Grechanik

Bring Them Home 1, Acrylic Markers in Sketchbook

Marina Grechanik

After October 7th

Abby Yucht

we were all dead and moving

as if electrocuted

 

a nation of frankensteins

forced to bring bodies back to life

 

and with electricity searing

through our veins- electric fence fallen to a puddle-

 

we began to pray for rain.

 

please, oh God, rain

to clear blood from roofless homes, rockets

 

to turn to rain around innocents-

 

Abraham prayed for the lives of rapists and God said no,

 

anger rained down on Sodom.

 

now the rain tastes so salty

of the dust clearing before our eyes,

 

landing on our speechless,

deadened tongues,

 

these are tears,

living, human tears and

 

the rain is shaking

with the shake of an electric nation.

 

the rain tastes salty.

the dust will clear.

CONTRIBUTORS

Abby Yucht

Abby Yucht is an emerging poet living in Jerusalem, Israel. Born and raised in Teaneck, NJ, she immigrated to Israel with her parents and siblings in 2015. She received her BA in psychology and musicology from Bar Ilan University and is starting an MSW at Hebrew University. Abby works in the field of mental health rehabilitation by day and loves to run poetry groups and workshops for her friends and community members by night. Abby’s most recent work can be found in the magazines Glass Mountain, Poetica, and is forthcoming in Channel.

Aida Bechar

Aida Bechar is a collage artist, illustrator and graphic designer. Based in Tel Aviv, she was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. As a classically trained artist with old-school Turkish art education, she uses collage as a means to free her creativity and step out of her boundaries. Her process is informed by the absurd, happy mistakes and her love of typography. Aida has exhibited her work in Tel Aviv, Cologne and in New York. She studied Visual Communications in Bezalel Academy and holds an MFA degree in Illustration from FIT, NYC.

Bruce Black

Bruce Black is editorial director of The Jewish Writing Project. His poetry and personal essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Soul-Lit, The BeZine, Bearings, Super Poetry Highway, Poetica, Lehrhaus, Tiferet, Hevria, Jewthink, The Jewish Literary Journal, and elsewhere. He lives in Highland Park, IL (USA).

Daniel Niv

Daniel Niv majored in Literature and Creative Writing in both Hebrew and English. She works as a professional reader for publishing houses, and is the co-founder and co-editor of Spell Jar Press. She received the Bar Sagi Award for her poetry. You can find her published works in Phantom Kangaroo, Anti-Heroin Chic, Amethyst Review, and elsewhere. She is most fascinated with writing poems that are both confessional and referential, writing fiction, and crafting collage-poems in a room full of candles. 

Didi Kfir

Didi Kfir is an illustrator, graphic designer, and pattern maker who graduated from Shenkar College of Design and Art. Born in Israel and currently based in Berlin, they are happy to integrate typography with illustration, applying it across editorial and book illustrations, as well as branding projects. Additionally, she enjoys illustrating through embroidery in their personal endeavors.

Leeor Margalit

Leeor Margalit is studying linguistics at Tel Aviv University. She enjoys reading, writing, traveling, and photographing her friends. 

Lior Maayan

Lior Maayan, born in Israel, lives with his wife near Tel Aviv. He is a hi-tech entrepreneur with Physics & Math background, an IDF Talpiot program graduate, and holds an MSc from the Technion, and an INSEAD MBA. Lior is a member of the 2022-23 Alma-Metanel Fellowship Program and the JTS Schoken Institute program for the arts. He is a graduate of the first Helicon Arabic-Hebrew poetry program & Makom Leshira Arabic-Hebrew Poetry Translation initiative. A Weizmann Institute Life Verse Poetry Laurate, his work has appeared in numerous publications including Granta, Asymptote, Haaretz, Yediot Aharonot, Write-Haus, Nanopoetica, Mashiv Haruach, Kol Alarab (Arabic tr.), OtroLunes (Spanish tr.) etc. His book “That Green” (Dr. Shira Stav editor), was published by Afik Publishing House in 2019.

Marina Grechanik

Marina is an artist, illustrator, and art educator based in Ra’anana, Israel, graduated from an art academy in Belorussia. Sketching is one of Marina’s passions. Everywhere she travels, she takes her sketchbook along with her. But the real essence of urban sketching for her is finding stories in everyday routines and combining sketching with daily tasks like taking care of her children, working, or running errands. “A sketchbook and a simple pen – that is all you need to go on a journey every day. Drawing is seeing, so you just need to open your eyes wider and start to sketch!”

Mona Haj

Mona Haj is a recent graduate from a Visual Communication department. Her work is personal and expressive, addressing social and political issues. She frequently integrates her own body into her creations, adding a sense of openness and vulnerability to her work. By delving into her emotions, she aims to foster empathy for her subjects. As a Palestinian woman in Israeli society, Mona navigates the complexities of her identity and the ongoing conflicts, which she continually reflects in her art.

Moriya Kaplan

Moriya was born in Ukraine, where she received an art education. She currently works and lives in Israel. Moriya specializes in realism; she draws inspiration from the beauty of simple lines and the idealism of nature. Her passion lies in exploring the depths of the human soul, skillfully capturing its emotions through eloquent body language.

Ronit Holtz

Ronit Joy Holtz (b. 1997, United States) is a painter and an installation artist. She completed a B.F.A in painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the spring of 2019. In her emerging years as an artist, Ronit has participated in many exhibitions, been featured in galleries and private collections in over 15 countries and states. She currently resides in Tel Aviv, Israel as a permanent studio artist and atelierista (art teacher). Ronit’s recent studio work is about healing through trauma, loss and grief. In the studio she explores ways to tap back into pain, but to cope with it in creative ways using mixed media and found objects infused with nostalgia and personal sentiment.

Sarina Shohet

Sarina Shohet (she/her) is a Berkeley grad and Jewish professional dedicated to the expression of magic.