Lauren Steinberg felt completely isolated after Oct. 7. Heartbroken by stories of innocent Israelis being murdered, she posted on social media to express her shock and empathy. Instead of receiving acknowledgement and support from people she considered friends, she was canceled.
“They wrote me off,” she said. “They unfriended me on social media and created a distance. Some people that I’ve been closer with, I had verbal confrontation with and felt extremely unheard and villainized. Other people that I worked with professionally as an artist, it’s just been radio silence. I haven’t heard from them. It’s a profound feeling that I’ve been cancelled by them. I no longer receive emails or updates from them, and they no longer reach out to me.”
Steinberg is a photographer and graphic designer who has been part of the Los Angeles art scene for many years. Realizing that people she considered friends were anti-Zionist or even antisemitic shook her to her core. However, when one door closes, another one opens. She discovered she was not the only Jewish artist feeling isolated. This led her to find a new community: Art World for Israel (AWFI).
The group was formed by Ariel Penzer, an activist and philanthropist who noticed the same shameful phenomena of Jewish artists being targeted, dealing with a sharp decline in their art sales and online harassment.
The group was formed by Ariel Penzer, an activist and philanthropist who noticed the same shameful phenomena of Jewish artists being targeted, dealing with a sharp decline in their art sales and online harassment. Friends had been telling her about their experiences and their feelings of seclusion. That’s how the idea to form a new group of artists began.
“We have people from all around the world: Zimbabwe, Colombia, Europe, and of course the USA. It began as a group chat with a few friends, and they invited friends, and the group kept growing. Now we have 1,200 people; some are writers, journalists, collectors, and painters.”
Penzer said there was a need for community, and people were clamoring to join. “Suddenly, we found other organizations doing amazing things, like Artists 4 Israel, Healing Art Kits and others, and we connected with so many great people around the world.”
The group has been supportive of each other’s projects, attending exhibitions, searching for volunteers to help fellow artists and assisting with new initiatives. “People in this group are always so ready to work and help others,” said Penzer. For her part, Steinberg has been in charge of the newsletter, using her skills as a graphic designer. “It’s just a way for me to give back because I really want to be there for this community and keep it moving forward.”
Steinberg said that a whole new world opened up for her as a result of AWFI. She met new artists and attended art openings she wouldn’t have been aware of without this group. Members also rallied to help fellow artists when they faced injustice and discrimination.
“There was an artist in our group who identifies as “Chilean-Israeli.” She was confronted by a board of a gallery where she was supposed to have a show,” said Steinberg. “They wanted to have a discussion about whether or not it was the ‘right timing’ to move forward with her show because of the political climate. This artist for all intents and purposes has never really spoken out politically. It was just the sheer fact that she identifies as Israeli that was considered problematic and this is a theme that runs through the art world that we’ve seen really come to life.”
Members of AWFI rallied together and wrote a letter in her defense to the art gallery. It worked and the show went on as planned.
British artist Zoe Buckman, a member of AWFI, expressed her frustration in a post on Instagram: “I feel sick to my stomach. A Jewish woman in Paris has been kidnapped and raped by a man who said he did it to ‘avenge Palestine.’ It’s almost as if much of the west has been supporting both rapists (of Jews and now Iranians) and the act of rape itself for over half a year. It’s almost as if we’ve been screaming about this and you all gaslit us into oblivion for it, or just blocked us.”
Steinberg really admires Buckman’s “warrior spirit and the way she’s taken on the internet.” In February Steinberg found out she’s pregnant with her first child and decided to take time off social media. She felt “it’s unhealthy for my psyche to be taking this fight in a way that feels so futile, but through this group, I feel like I can be active in a more behind the scenes way. It’s why I devote so much time to helping with the newsletter and to making this organization public facing.”
Steinberg and Penzer emphasized that you don’t have to be Jewish to be a part of the group, but you do have to be supportive of Israel and a pro-Zionist.
That is the only requirement,” Steinberg said. “Of course everyone comes out with their own point of view and their own perspective on things, but I think the common thread is that we all have a deep love and empathy for Israel and what our Israeli brothers and sisters are going through right now, especially those that are in the art world.”
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