$700- Dollar Plates: Inside the Art Exhibit Benefiting Lone Soldier Support

200 Israeli artists, singers and creatives took time to decorate plates for the benefit of lone soldiers who are serving in Israel without family. Legendary Israeli musicians Yehuda Poliker, David D’Or, and Yehudit Ravitz stopped the world to paint a plate. 

The artists featured all have different types of dayjobs, but say art is art – even if it’s on a plate. The event was curated by the Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Michael Levin after its president, Dorit Nitzani, presented the idea to Leora Rubinstein, the center’s CEO. 

The Lone Soldier Center personally provided the artists with blank white plates to use as canvases and asked them to come up with an idea and paint whatever they wanted that reminded them of home. 

“A lot of singers that painted on the plates volunteered to bring it for the lone soldiers,” said Liora Rubinstein, CEO of the Lone Soldier Center. “It’s so warm to see what’s happening here. I think it was worth it.”

The colorful exhibit spanned across 5 large walls in the gallery, located in the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv. 

Recent Israeli citizen, Diane Neal joined the event as a viewer. She’s known across the world for her role as New York Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak. In 2023, she moved to Israel from New York, but has recently spent more of her time officially living in the Holy Land. 

When asked the most exciting thing about being home in Israel, Neal simply responded, “I cannot believe the vibe.” 

“10 million people legitimately all willing to die, all willing to go to the Miklats (shelters) and Mamads (safe rooms), all willing to stock up on stuff for the freedom of 90 million people they’ve never met. So that they would be free of the kind of government that harasses us with Hamas and Hezbollah, and the Houthis. We know what that’s like. And they’ve been living under that for 47 years now. And all of us. There is no place on earth that’s like that. Where the rescue flights are people coming home to serve. It doesn’t exist, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Neal said when asked about the lone soldiers and her experience in Israel. 

She is encouraging U.S. Jews to make Aliyah before things take a turn for the worse. 

The Israel Daily News spoke to another artist, Nirit Takala, on why her participation in the exhibition was important. 

“It’s for a good purpose,” she said. “For me, it was important to be in this exhibition because I can donate through my art to the people that need it,” she added. 

One guest who wanted to purchase art for his home and was blown away by the event. “It’s very impressive. It has different aspects. And I can see that every artist is putting their impression, their emotions, their look on life, and it’s so different. It’s very interesting.”

He said he was ready to buy a piece… but was waiting for the go-ahead from his wife, who was very seriously surveying the plates on each wall and corner the exhibition space.  

Ivry Leder, a photographer whose work has been featured in exhibitions across Israel and globally has never put his work on a plate. Until now.  The image he chose was of an Israeli Jewish friend of his, who has “love” and “success” tattooed in Arabic on the back of his legs. 

When asked why he wanted to take part, he said “I love the idea because of what this organization is doing for the soldiers, and it’s something I would love to contribute to… So there are a lot of layers to this image to put it on a plate for this organization. So, you know, I thought it could be an interesting thing to try.” 

Half of the plates sold at the opening event for 2,000 NIS, which is about $700. All proceeds benefit the Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Michael Levin. 

*Michael Levin was a lone soldier from Philadelphia who fell in the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006. The Lone Soldier Center, established in his memory, provides support to lone soldiers, both financially and medically.