Ever since he was a young teenager, Lavi Lipshitz set his sights on helping others through his love of art. But it wasn’t until after his tragic death death – he was the first Israeli soldier to fall in the Gaza ground operation in October 2023 – that Lavi’s talent for photography reached the wider audience it deserved.
The 20-year-old Givati Brigade soldier set up the now viral Instagram account ‘Till When Photo Diary’ just months before he was killed by a Hamas RPG, giving followers an insight into life in the army with daily posts.
His last photo was posted the day before thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel and Lavi was called to the frontline.
The entrepreneur had by then already started to take pictures at bar and batmitzvahs with the aim of using the money he earned to purchase 10 cameras to train youngsters less privileged than himself, his father Nitzan recalled to Jewish News.
Lavi’s parents with the photo displayed at last week’s dinner
He and his wife Shlomit were in London last week to join the British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel annual gala where a photo by Lavi was among the pieces by Israeli, American and British artists up for auction. They hope it will be the first of many auctions.
“The money will go towards finishing the ten cameras project. He also wanted to donate cameras to his old school. If we raise enough money, it will go to a programme that supports boarding schools or villages for at risk students. We hope to have programmes in his name with an organisation called Photo Israel which helps kids show their voice through photography.”
His last photo was posted the day before thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel and Lavi was called to the frontline
Nitzan – who took six months off work at tech giant Mobileye after losing his son to dedicate himself to building bridges between the left and right in Israel – said Lavi had made photo books for free for those who couldn’t fully celebrate their religious coming of age during Covid.
He said of the 300-guest fundraiser: “It’s amazing. To know that this happens around the world for the museums in Israel and for arts in Israel, it’s highly appreciated.
Lavi Lipshitz in uniform
“Lavi always said he was going to conquer the world, to change the world. He would be very proud to be part of such a prestigious group of artists. He was also into cinematography and dreamed of being an artist but also to do good.”
The dinner at The Dorchester – headline sponsored by auction house Christie’s – raised £450,000 for projects including arts scholarships for special needs and disadvantaged people and art therapy classes for at risk youths.
Bfami co-chairs Pamela Crystal and Poju Zabludowicz said: “Over the past year, the art museums have become places of comfort and recovery. Our mission has been to enable them to become safe zones, to fund further programmes for children and families, to transform galleries into workshops and places of creative gatherings, to develop and curate exhibitions that will evoke hope and vitality when they are needed the most. We have funded more than 20 educational artistic programs in the art museums of Israel in the last year alone.”
They added: “Here in the UK it may look like the art world has turned its back thanks to Barmi’s evolving community. We have managed to create meaningful collaborations. We partner with organisations, creators artists and institutions in the UK and worldwide, hosting multiple events, trips and experiences.”
Zabludowicz called on guests to become “cultural ambassadors” against rising antisemitism and hailed Candida Gertler, co-founder of the Outset Fund, for the “amazing things she’s done over 20 years”. last year, the philanthropist resigned all her roles within UK art institutions after Goldsmiths’ Centre for a Contemporary Art at the University of London announced it would remove her and husband’s names from one of its galleries, after a boycott by activists.
Christie’s associate director Yu-Ge Wang greeted guests in Hebrew before launching the auction promising “art is the highest form of hope so today you can buy not just art but also hope”.
Fittingly, the highest sum achieved was £50,000 for guest of honour Joel Mesler vibrant painting which formed the backdrop of the stage. In conversation with podcaster Carrie Scott, he told guests that he tried to bring hope and light into the world through his text based paintings and sculpture. He also proudly spoke of himself as “one of the world’s largest collectors of rabbi paintings. I realised there are auctions and auctions and no one was buying them. I consider myself a custodian of the lost rabbis”.
Also addressing the event were Bfami’s Doron von Beider and Young Bfami co-chair Donna Bengio.
