by Vanessa Ehrlich, OSRUI Faculty Member and Director of Education at Lakeside Congregation in Highland Park, IL.  These are excerpts from her blog, In One Ehrlich.

Part of a trip to Tel Aviv should be a visit with Ohad Sha’altiel, artist, teacher, creative genius and Artist in Residence at OSRUI during the summer, primarily with one eidah, unit, Tiferet, but he works with the whole camp.  This visit I was privileged to not only see Ohad at work but also his latest exhibition.  Ohad has always brought a high level of art appreciation to OSRUI.

After seeing his art displayed at the Zadik Gallery I begin to appreciate even more what Ohad brings to OSRUI.  Our Tiferet campers who come back year after year realize that Ohad can inspire them to become a real artist.  At the end of every session Ohad displays their work in a mini exhibition and the final products always blow me away.  Ohad can take raw talent develop it, shape it and present it in a professional manner for campers of any age.

Here are some of Ohad’s exhibition pictures from his exhibition burnt woods, where Ohad drew inspiration from the Keren Kayemet Forests of Carmel near his home of Ein Hod, where the fires burned so violently a few years ago.
I have always enjoyed Ohad’s art and seeing it displayed in this Gallery in Jaffa made me realize how lucky we are to have such a talent at camp.  Ohad has been at camp for over 20 years and I look forward to the next 20.  …