Rachel of Ofakim, the heroine who kept herself and her family alive by hosting the terrorists holding her hostage until security forces could arrive, is now commemorated on a Haifa city shelter. Like many residents of Israel, Haifa artist Adi Yonathan Cohen was inspired by the heroic story of Rachel Edri of Ofakim. He immediately felt the need and desire to commemorate her artistically, and he sent a request to the city of Haifa to draw her likeness on the wall of a public structure in the city.
After a brief series of phone calls, Adi received approval from the spokesperson’s department, which picked up the gauntlet and worked with the administration to find an appropriate wall – a public shelter on Komoly street in the Neveh Shaanan neighborhood, near the Ziv Center.
31 year old Yonathan Cohen is a Haifa-based artist living on Massada Street. Cohen is an educator who gives workshops on art and rap to youth and works with the US Embassy on community projects. Today, Cohen intends to travel south to draw on walls together with children and youth from around the country.
“I work at the fronts I’m good at,” he said, “Art is my callup order, and the story of Rachel of Ofakim was a point of light in this difficult time we are all experiencing. I am happy the city of Haifa quickly agreed to my idea of commemorating her in a wall painting, and I finished the painting by nightfall, symbolically drawn on the wall of a public shelter.”