{"id":49002,"date":"2026-05-29T01:43:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=49002"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:14:22","slug":"a-chime-of-metal-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/a-chime-of-metal-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"A chime of metal tags"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo<\/a>
This wind chime with metal tags holds the energy of the people who wore them, and the hostages who we still remember in our hearts. (photo from Rina (Lederer) Vizer)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seems so long ago, but it was only on Jan. 27,\u00a0after 843 days, 12 hours and six minutes, that\u00a0all our hostages returned home; the living and the dead. Finally, the\u00a0 clock at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv was turned\u00a0off.<\/p>\n

A lot of forces played into this \u201cmiracle\u201d of living up to the Israeli ethos of freeing our people, but, in my view, the main force was the power of the people: the hundreds of thousands that flooded the streets, week after week, in Israel and in cities around the world. Here in Vancouver, we echoed the outcry for their return,\u00a0every Sunday, for almost two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

As an artist, I thought that I should find a new role for the metal tags we\u00a0wore during that\u00a0period, one that would reflect the spirit of our people; a spirit with a force that can move and sway: a wind chime!\u00a0The word in Hebrew for \u201cwind\u201d is ruach<\/i>, the same word used for \u201cspirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

I turned to my friends in the circle of Israeli folk dance, who had been dancing with the tags on their chests for those almost two-and-a-half years. I asked them to donate their tags to the project.<\/p>\n

Glenda Leznoff, who was part of the creative design, and I\u00a0collected\u00a0the tags, and Glenda\u2019s son-in-law, Dave Smith, built the chime.\u00a0The result: a beautiful wind chime with metal tags that holds the energy of the people who wore\u00a0them, and the hostages who we still remember in our hearts.<\/p>\n

The chime will be offered to the highest bidder in a silent auction\u00a0this weekend, during the annual BeLev Echad Israeli\u00a0Dance workshop at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. (\u201cBeLev echad\u201d<\/i> means \u201cWith one heart,\u201d in Hebrew.) The proceeds will go to the Vancouver Israeli Folk Dance Society, a charitable organization that promotes Israeli dance here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rina (Lederer) Vizer<\/b> <\/i><\/b>is a Vancouver artist who has exhibited her work many times over the years. In October 2024, she curated, as well as participated in,\u00a0the\u00a0exhibition Memory and Hope, at Temple Sholom, which commemorated the terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. Her art is displayed in Temple Sholom, which commissioned from her 10 panels depicting\u00a0Israel\u2019s views from north to south.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems so long ago, but it was only on Jan. 27,\u00a0after 843 days, 12 hours and six minutes, that\u00a0all our hostages returned home; the living and the dead. Finally, the\u00a0 clock at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv was turned\u00a0off. A lot of forces played into this \u201cmiracle\u201d of living up to the Israeli ethos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[2466,22725,8676,1774],"class_list":["post-49002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-art","tag-oct-7","tag-remembrance","tag-terrorism"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}