“The Deserving Child”

approximately 36” square

quilted cotton and linen remnants, rope, clothespins

2024

Before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023, I had already started exploring my connection - and disconnection - with my own Jewish heritage. After the terrorist attack and amidst the resulting genocidal retaliation, newly complex facets to this exploration have emerged. Like many others, I’ve been reexamining the link between Jewish identity and the nation of Israel, unlearning historical narratives, and coping with feelings of shame, anger, and helplessness.

For this piece, I wanted to focus on the interconnectedness of the Israelis and Palestinians by using the colors of both flags, and their shared use of the color white. The square-within-circles quilt design is one I’ve used previously and I realized it worked well for this concept in various ways. The small size and name of the quilt refer to a question I keep asking myself - who decides which child deserves to die and which child deserves to sleep peacefully in their bed? The back of the quilt, in fragmented pieces of red, white, and blue, represents the U.S./Western involvement in how things have come to be.

I struggled to decide how to finish the quilt before realizing I shouldn’t finish it, because the conflict is not finished. It may never be finished, sadly. Leaving the edges raw, the threads loose, the binding undone… speaks to those lives cut short, those peaceful days interrupted, by the atrocities of war. Hung on a clothesline, the piece references the struggles of everyday life, especially for those displaced from their now-destroyed homes.

How many generations will grow up in fear and hatred of the ‘other’? We may never know.