Richard McBee
artist & writer

Fogel Massacre / Itamar  2011 60" x 48"  Itamar Yeshiva, Israel

The facts of the Fogel massacre in the northern Israeli community of Itamar are simple.  On Shabbos night, March 12, 2011, two teenagers from a neighboring Palestinian village, 18 & 19, entered Itamar and then the Fogel home and stabbed to death Udi Fogel, 36, his wife Ruth, 35, and three of their children, Yoav, 11; Elad, 4 and Hadas, 3 months old.  Two other Fogel children were in another room of the house and were not discovered by the attackers.  Tamar Fogel, 12, returned home around 12:45am, found her house locked and got a neighbor to help her get in.  That is when she discovered her slain parents and siblings.

As a larger than life subject I utilized the tradition of early Renaissance tragic depictions of the crucifixion and lamentation of Jesus.  Giotto’s images of mourning angels and heavenly hosts in the Arena Chapel in Padua seemed like the only vehicles that could express our Jewish grief over what happened and God’s apparent silence.  While making this painting cannot return the Fogel’s to us, it may make it harder for us to forget them and what they gave for the right to live in the land of Israel.

Showing Heaven and angels is the first step to interrogating God.  A fearful step for sure, and yet something I cannot flinch from.

-- Richard McBee

Haman's Fate 1996 68" x 68"

All references; the Book of Esther

7: 8 Then the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the wine drinking; and Haman was falling upon the couch where Esther was. Then said the king, Will he also force the queen with me present in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 And Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, stands in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him on it. 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.

Used with permission Davka Corporation

Talmudic Parable

Hanging Haman's Sons 1996 98" x 98"

All references; the Book of Esther

9: 5 Thus the Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them. 6 And in Shushan the capital the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. 7 And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 8 And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 9 And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, 10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the plunder they did not lay their hand.

Used with permission Davka Corporation

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