The humans of Tel Aviv are a lot like you and me

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At its heart, Erez Kaganovitz’s “Humans of Tel Aviv” project could serve as a blueprint for what it takes to be human, not just in Tel Aviv, but across the globe.

Kaganovitz, 35, an Israeli photojournalist, was in Providence recently to give three presentations in conjunction with a month-long exhibit, at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center, of 36 of the more than 1,000 images in his collection. Kaganovitz had one overriding message to impart during his visit: people are, well, just people – if we’d only take the time to realize that.

During his final workshop, “Humans of Tel Aviv and the Social Fabric of Tel Aviv,” Kaganovitz summed up what he’s learned from his five-plus-year project, which was based on a similar, but unrelated, project, “Humans of New York.” Among his many lessons was that we need to get out of our comfort zone to reach out to strangers.

“You have to put yourself out there, you have to approach people,” he said in recounting how the project forced him to be bold. Only twice did people show their disapproval by breaking his camera, Kaganovitz quipped.

The process, he said, taught him a vital lesson: “Every person has a story.”

Although that applies to all the photos in the exhibit, one in particular really brought home the message of how education and talking to people, instead of at them, can help to fix the world. That image showed four arms with numbers tattooed on them: the number of an Auschwitz survivor.

This is what Kaganovitz wrote about that photo:

“Yosef Diamant is a Holocaust survivor who survived the horrors in the death camp at Auschwitz. He is the only survivor of his immediate family. His parents and three brothers were all murdered.

“The Dayament-Sager family decided to tattoo Yosef’s Holocaust number on their forearms as a tribute to him, so as to never forget what happened.

“Arik, Yosef’s grandson, decided to get the tattoo after a lot of consideration. ‘I had to think about the decision very carefully, and, at first, my grandfather was reluctant about it, but in the end, he asked me: ‘When your grandson will see the tattoo, will you tell him about me?’

“ ‘We decided to add a small diamond next to the number in honor of our family name, Diamant, which means diamond in German.’ ”

When Kaganovitz posted that entry online, he said he heard from people in the Arab and Muslim worlds – he said he has 10,000 social media followers in those communities – who said they had never before understood the Holocaust and “why you established the state of Israel.”

It’s the possibility of reaching that level of understanding among different cultures and nations that makes the “Humans of Tel Aviv” project so compelling. Kaganovitz’s photos help us realize that while many people are trying to divide us, we have the power to overcome our differences “The bottom line is it’s about connection … it’s [about] engaging people. … It’s about people to people [contact] and not only about governments,” he said of his goal in starting and continuing the project.

That approach has worked well for Kaganovitz. Whether it’s a Holocaust-related photo, a story and long narrative about Rafi Eitan, the man who helped capture Nazi kingpin Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, or his many lighter and humorous subjects – including a lion walking around Tel Aviv and a stuffed monkey sitting on a tree while people stroll by – Kaganovitz has demonstrated a knack for connecting with strangers.

He’s especially effective when he tackles the sensitive subjects of religion and racism. His photos include religious and ultra-Orthodox Jews who are also gay, Jews of color from Africa, and Israelis of Arab descent. One message, posted alongside a woman who was born in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, and came to Israel when she was a baby, is particularly instructive:

“Personally, I’ve never encountered racism, but I know a lot of Ethiopians who have. In the bottom line, it all comes down to education. It’s about time people will understand that there is no difference between white and black; they’re only different shades, all on the same color spectrum.”

Kaganovitz’s inherent humanity is apparent in his photos, especially in one showing three Muslim women wearing burkas sitting on a beach looking out. “The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair,” he wrote.

His message of reaching out is something that we would do well to take to heart in these days when so many of us are becoming alienated from one another by ideology, religion, politics, and by “likes” on social media.
“We need more leaders than politicians,” Kaganovitz said.

Amen to that.

LARRY KESSLER is a freelance writer who can be reached at lkessler1@comcast.net.

Humans of Tel Aviv