‘Human emotion born from rupture’: Tu B’Av exhibit depicts love at war

A new photography exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem showcases a collection of love stories that developed during the war. The show opens on August 8 for Tu B’Av, the Jewish equivalent of Valentine’s Day.

“Love in the Shadow of War” features portraits of eight couples, photographed by Limor Zadok and curated by Ifat Shomrony.

“In an Israeli reality defined by ongoing pain and loss, I felt a deep need to present a different voice — of healing, connection, love and hope,” said Shomrony. “I wanted to give space to the complexity of human emotion born from rupture, and to tell stories of life and death that lit a spark of hope and love, even as everything around was scorched.”

One portrait showcases an older couple, each widowed — one before and one during the war — who were evacuated to an assisted living facility and met each other there.

Another features a couple who discovered one another on guard duty in October 2023, shortly after the October 7 Hamas onslaught; she had left her ultra-Orthodox family and he had been fighting near Kibbutz Re’im.

One set of soldiers photographed served in the same tank, eventually adopting a dog they found in Gaza.

Ice bathing features in another couple’s photos as they gathered at a memorial for a friend who was killed at the Nova festival, and followed his practice of using ice bathing therapy.

There is a couple photographed with a baby of their own; they met as he posted Yiddish jokes in memory of his father while on reserve duty in the north.

A soldier who was seriously wounded kept in touch with a shooting instructor who had immigrated from France, while another couple were locked together in a safe room on October 7.

The exhibit is pairing with the Jerusalem Cinematheque, and will screen classic love films every Thursday night in August under the open sky of the museum’s amphitheater.

Tickets for the exhibit can be purchased at the Museum of Tolerance website.