Yom HaShoah Service followed by
Sculpting after the Holocaust

The story of Naomi (Nomi) Blake embodies the story of European Jewish history of the 20th century. Naomi grew up as a Zionist, socialist in a tolerant Czechoslovakia and then in oppressive Hungary. For her, after enduring Auschwitz, the loss of many family members and injury fighting in the Israeli war of independence, sculpture became a positive means of expression. As her work developed into abstract and semi-figurative pieces, she sought to promote understanding between faiths and a hopeful future.

This year on Yom Hashoah we remember the Holocaust through the experience and sculpture of Naomi Blake. We will hear Naomi’s story and get an insight into her work through the eyes of Naomi’s daughter Anita (Nin) Peleg, and we will also be introduced - through a recently produced film - to the powerful sculpture of Maurice Blik, who came to England after being liberated from Bergen Belsen. Naomi and Maurice exhibited in a joint sculpture exhibition at Sculpt Gallery in 2015, where Naomi’s protective, nurturing and hopeful style, together with Maurice’s strong, defiant, outward-reaching forms, presented contrasting but equally positive expressions of their experiences as survivors of the Holocaust.