I was driving my daughters to daycare when I saw it: Horrible vandalism on top of the faces of kidnapped Israelis. Their photos, which were put up in Pico-Robertson, had been covered with black spray-paint that said, “But Bibi Bombed Me.”
I quickly sent out a message to three different local WhatsApp groups, telling everyone what happened and seeing if someone had some spray-paint to cover it up. One woman wrote back, “My friend is on it.”
Within an hour, I received a beautiful photo back: The friend, artist and teacher Sheina Yarmush, had spray-painted in bright, bold, blue letters, “BRING THEM HOME.” Now, the posters behind them, and the message, became much more vibrant. As I passed the posters again, I was happy to see that they were much more noticeable now.
I wanted to call Yarmush, a well-known Jewish artist, and thank her for acting so quickly. She picked up right away and told me how this was not her first cover-up project; she had spray-painted over two other hateful messages that appeared in Pico-Robertson following October 7, and if others popped up, she would again mobilize the same way.
“I get fired up,” she told me. “I want people to feel uplifted.”
When someone spray-painted “Free Gaza” on a telephone switching box, Sheina went and covered it with blue and pink spray-paint that said, “Am Yisrael Chai” in Hebrew. And when people spray-painted “Jews 4 Palestine” and “Not in Our Name” with a green Star of David, Sheina covered it with “Jews Unite for Israel,” making the Star of David beautiful and blue.
“Seeing ‘Jews 4 Palestine’ really pained me,” she said. “It hurt me. I said, I’m going to transform the message there into something positive.”
The issue is personal for Sheina, who has family in Israel, including aunts, a cousin in the IDF and a bunch of other cousins who are dealing with sirens constantly going off. She is very outwardly and proudly Jewish; she spray-paints the candle-lighting times on her mural in Pico-Robertson every week and has a number of other murals around town and in Jewish communities across the U.S.
When it comes to covering up the detestable messages, she said, “My purpose here is not to create a masterpiece. It’s to uplift morale.”
To contact Sheina for murals, paint parties or live art shows you can message her on her Instagram @sheinasart or call her at 718-363-2981.
