Jewish Elephants: The Desecration of Abducted Human Faces

January 2024

This is part of a series calling out the “Jewish Elephant” in the room.  The elephant in the room is used to describe something that is taking up a lot of space, but whose presence for some reason, people are reluctant to address or even acknowledge.  In this particular instance, the Jewish elephant is highlighting my experience over the past several months photographing the desecration of Israeli hostage posters that decorated nearly every block of my neighborhood on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, since October 7th.

Each time I ventured outside my apartment, I would be bombarded not only with the faces of the hostages but their repeated defacement.  Photos of entire families, children, elderly, including Holocaust survivors, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, kidnapped by Hamas, abducted from their homes, sexually assaulted and tortured.  Some were the sole surviving members of their family.  Each day for months I witnessed their faces torn apart, painted over with graffiti, and scratched out by people who believe the lives of Israelis are somehow criminal or sub-human just by their very existence as Israelis and Jews.  Again, every day, people would repair the damage by putting up new posters, adding more tape, even smearing vaseline over the tape-covered posters to make them more difficult to defile.

Psychologically, I realized how much this was negatively impacting my mental health.  I’m supposed to feel safe here.  The Upper West Side is a neighborhood that historically and to this day, remains one of the most Jewish in the country, and in New York City.  We live near each other with a confidence that we can wear a kippah or Star of David necklace, speak Hebrew, celebrate our holidays and shop at our kosher markets and cultural establishments without fear or concern.  This wasn’t supposed to happen here.  Almost half of the world’s Jews live in Israel, and many of us have Israeli family, friends, or are also Israeli citizens.  Some are relatives of the hostages themselves.  Regardless, most Jews have been affected by the trauma, not just what is happening in Israel, but also the global and local rise of Antisemitism since the horrors of October 7th.   

It plagued me that regardless of what political beliefs these people held, even if they hated Israel, how could they not still see the humanity of these hostages, which include those who are not even Jewish or Israeli.  Some were ardent Leftists, whose lives had been dedicated to peace with Palestinians.  I wondered who are these individuals, and why instead of putting up their own posters, they had made it their mission to inflict the double wound of destroying the only public reminder we have to bring these innocent people home.   Do they hate Israelis and Jews?  Is the cashier or store clerk down the block smiling back at me one of them?  Is it a neighbor?  Slowly, an awareness grew inside me that I needed to rise above the power I was giving these Antisemites and the impact these desecrated faces were having on me.  This piece represents part of that process, and the big Jewish elephant in the room speaks for himself