Smadar Eliasaf

Born in Haifa, 1952
Lives and works in Kfar Shemaryahu

Smadar Eliasaf, who has been active as an artist since the 1970s, offers a tribute to her grandmother, who left a deep impression on her both as a child and as an adult, and of whom she has many memories. The work she created for this exhibition stands out in the context of her larger oeuvre: it consists of a coffee table set with five sleekly designed, modernist cake plates, printed with excerpts from Sonia Diner's certificate of immigration to the country. In this work, Eliasaf combines childhood memories from her grandmother's living room with the modernist sensibility of that period. "My career-oriented Grandmother Sonia," says Eliasaf, "was, for me, the family anchor - a warm, protective, containing presence, like a coffee table and cake."


Sonia Diner

1908, Drohiczyn, Poland
1993, Tel Aviv

Sonia Diner (Smadar Eliasaf's grandmother) immigrated to Palestine in 1927 with her sister when she was 19 years old, as part of the Fourth Aliyah. She lived in Haifa and devoted her life to working for the organization Working Mothers, which was established in 1934. This organization, which was part of the Histadrut's Women Workers' Council, was established to support working mothers and their children. In 1976, the country's women's organizations united under the name NAAMAT. Diner, who studied social work, was in charge of the organization's northern district. As part of her work, she founded and supervised professional training courses for girls and women, and established daycare centers for children. She was an active member of the MAPAI party, and held socialist views; the party, work, and the Zionist enterprise were her top priorities.