Ahmadinejad

Oil on canvas 16” x 20”

A portrait of the former Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a quote from the Torah, one of the daily six remembrances in prayer.
"Only guard yourself
And guard your soul,
unless they leave your heart and your children’s heart
and teach them to your children and your children's children."

This was a command given from Gd to the Jewish people after the golden calf incident when the Jews lost trust in the immense miracles and divine revelation they had just experienced. Losing that faith and awareness, they reconstructed reality to determine what their next move should be. Thus this work is a modern day dialogue about how memory is so easily altered, and the necessity to guard ourselves and our children from memory manipulation. It is a reminder for the necessity to actively teach our children who we are and what we stand for. Because, as Ahmadinejad proved by denying the Holocaust in the same generation that Holocaust survivors still existed, if we don't teach our children, someone else will.