THE REFUGEE WOMEN WEAVING ART FROM BROKEN LIVES

A Tel Aviv project that began with basket-weaving to help African women asylum seekers has blossomed to become a showcase for international cutting-edge art. Dr Pamela Peled meets the women behind this remarkable initiative

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One of Judaism’s most fabulous tenets evolved out of pain, echoing down through the ages: Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress

him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21). Not only were Jews strangers, as the injunction admonishes, they were slaves. On their flesh they know not to do to others as they would not be done by.

Modern Israelis have the chance to put this into practice. Some 30,000 refugees live in Israel, many from Africa. They wash dishes at restaurants or clean houses; coronavirus has killed their already limited ability to earn. Among the weakest and most vulnerable are the women, who are often single mothers. Some are ill, some have ill children; many are destitute, lonely and lost.

Enter Diddy Mymin Kahn, an angel presiding over a magical space in a dilapidated tenement in Tel Aviv. From the outside it’s just another drab location;

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