This talk analyzes the reconstruction of traditional concepts of the ‘Jewish Mother’ through visual culture. Based on the 1943 Holocaust photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Viennese born
Nazi Officer Franz Konrad, Nir Hod, an Israeli-born artist, created a series of paintings
Mother (2012). In the series, one of the photographed women is painted on several large
canvases. Influenced by the Post-war German artist Gerhard Richter, whose photography-based
paintings such as Onkel Rudi (1965) were important references for the Israeli artist, Hod chose to
depict an overlooked female figure in the photo and painted her. As opposed to the German
artist, whose paintings underline the importance of documenting Germany’s Nazi past and its
ideology, Hod chose not to commemorate the past but to use the photograph to paint a better
future.

In her talk Dr. Gilboa will argue that Hod’s work is a visual discourse, promoting cultural internationality and gender equality. She will demonstrate that he utilizes the photograph-based painting, not just as a reminder of the past, but to offer alternatives to traditional assumptions. To support this argument, she will consider discussions such as Ulrike Brunotte’s studies on traditional gender roles in Judaism as well as in antisemitism. In sum, by dedicating a series of paintings entitled ‘Mother’ to an overlooked female figure in the photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto, Nir Hod created a symbolic figure of a modern woman whose role as a ‘Jewish Mother’ is a manifestation of modernity.