Ophra Shoshtari: Crafting the future of art for Israel's youth

• Author: ALAN ROSENBAUM
• Published date: 30 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Speaking to me via Zoom, it is clear that the friendly, 35-year-old mother of three is not particularly devious or scheming. Rather, her self-description refers to her skills in design, graphics, and visual arts.

Since moving to Israel almost 12 years ago, Ophra has developed her talents in art curation and is now channeling her skills into increasing greater awareness of art among residents of Judea and Samaria, where she and her family live.

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Ophra was born in St. Louis and moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, when she was nine. Ophra, whose mother builds violins and whose grandmother had been an art teacher, gravitated towards art and recalls visiting the many museums in the Washington,DC area during her childhood. "When I was old enough, I could take the train by myself, and that gave me a great opportunity to be exposed to art," she says. Ophra confesses that as a child, art was not her first love. "I loved art, but I wanted to be a singer-songwriter," she says. "It turns out that's not so easy to pull off and be observant."

Ophra attended the University of Maryland, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Museum Studies in 2008. Unfortunately, due to the Great Recession of 2008, most of the museums in the Washington area, including government-run museums like the Smithsonian, had imposed a hiring freeze. "It was a horrible year to graduate," she says.

On the other hand, the lack of employment opportunities led her to consider aliyah. The idea of moving to Israel was not entirely foreign to her. Ophra had studied in Israel-oriented Jewish day schools, had spent a year in Israel after high school, and had many friends living there. Her parents wanted to retire in Israel, and, she says, "there was nothing keeping me there."

On December 31, 2009, Ophra arrived in Israel on a Nefesh B'Nefesh aliyah flight. After studying Hebrew in ulpan, she went from gallery to gallery in Jerusalem, finding a job in a small commercial gallery. Ophra spent a year-and-a-half living in Jerusalem before moving to Haifa in 2011 to pursue graduate studies in the University of Haifa's master's program in Art History and Curation. Ophra not only gained a graduate degree but made valuable connections in her field, and soon got a job in a commercial art gallery in Tel Aviv, where, as a member of the gallery's three-person staff, she learned a great...