Loss, Sacrifice and Overcoming • Four significant moments in the past year of four soldiers, presented through the works of four artists • Yinon Peretz met Judy Koppelman
A few days before the second closure fell on us, Yinon Peretz and Judy Koppelman, who came from two completely different worlds, met, near the empty white wall of the lecture hall at the Hashomer Farm base.
Yinon is a lone 20-year-old soldier who came from the ultra-Orthodox sector and Judy is a graffiti artist who since her daughter served at the base about two years ago, she started it in the "Talking Walls" project.
Judy Koppelman in graffiti for the lone soldier from the Hashomer farm // Photo: Gil Kramer
Yinon Peretz enlisted last July and was assigned to training at Hashomer Farm.
Like many of the soldiers who come to Hashomer Farm from difficult backgrounds, he also made a long way from the bottom of his life, until he decided to enlist in the IDF.
"Until the age of 13 and a half, I grew up in an ultra-Orthodox family that repented. My father was the director of a health insurance fund and made a good living until he contracted cirrhosis of the liver.
From then until he died about two years later, my parents divorced, I left home and moved in with my grandmother, moved away from religion and moved from one school to another until I found a secular school that knew how to deal with me, "says Yinon." When Dad died I was 16, I moved in. Hired and made a living from casual jobs.
Towards the age of 18 there was a case following which I was detained for two weeks.
That's where the change began.
I decided to stop with the nonsense, take myself in hand and mark for myself a path and a path that I believe in and aim for. "
More in the project:
• Optimism during an epidemic
• Colors of memory
• Edible emotions
Now he dreams of successfully completing his basic training and then joining a track that will lead him to combat service in the Golani.
When he met Judy last week in the evening with Judy near the empty wall of the lecture hall, he realized that for her it was a special event too: unlike other murals she painted at the base that were general, the painting she was going to paint and finally painted on the empty wall was based on his personal story.
At the end, Yinon's figure is seen standing in the center against the background of the sunrise as he doubtless salutes a doubt looking towards the horizon.
It is also the saying of Sheffer written alongside the tour that he chose: "The wisdom is to see the horizon."
To Judy Kaufman's website
Yinon concludes: "If I can pass on my dealings with the obstacles and the way life has summoned me, and help even one soldier who sits here and is inspired by the painting, it's all worth it."
