A Bell Rings in Israel
Avraham Bell, biotech researcher and talented artist, has made an amazing odyssey from his black-American birth in North Carolina to the hills of emuna in Ramat Bet Shemesh…
Yehudit and I were born in different times and different places. I was born to a black-American family in North Carolina on December, 1956. The world I came into was not tolerant of people like me. My childhood was one of subjugation and separation. The Jim Crow Laws were in effect through most of my elementary years. By the time I reached Junior High School, integration of the schools was in full swing. The schools were integrated but not the hearts of men. Hate was normal and everyone had to stay in their place or suffer the consequences. Despite the darkness, there were rays of light. I found that light in the forest. The rays of light sliced through the trees illuminating all things great and small. I knew in my heart as I gazed at the shimmering leaves and listened to the babbling brooks that the same G-d that created the forest created me.
My wife Yehudit grew up in a middle class Jewish family in Philadelphia where the only person of color she knew was the woman who cleaned their house and ironed their clothes. She was raised Conservative. As she grew up, she wrote letters to Hashem, hoping to find a connection. Many years passed. A loneliness and emptiness filled her, and she turned to her saxophone for expression. That is when our story truly began.
Yehudit and I were both researchers at Cetus Corporation, a biotech company in the San Francisco Bay area. Each year the company would sponsor an art exhibit featuring the artwork and musical talents of the employees. Yehudit was a saxophone soloist in the band and I was one of the participating artists. Her heartfelt and soulful performance attracted my attention. We began dating, and Yehudit expressed the importance of Jewish culture in the home, stating that all of her children would be Jewish, period. She did not know enough to understand the challenges of a mixed marriage, or the inability to separate Jewish culture from Jewish Spirituality.
We were married 8 months later and within 3 years, we moved to Los Angeles to be near her family. I worked as a Researcher at Amgen Corporation, and Yehudit worked at home as a mother and a wife. We could not afford preschool for our daughter Tzippy, so when her parents offered to pay we were delighted! Their only prerequisite was that it had to be a Jewish preschool. It wasn’t long before Tzippy started asking questions. “Why don’t we light Shabbat candles? Can we go to Shul? Will Abba come with us?” Before we knew it, we were complying with all of her requests, as we did not want to seem hypocritical to our only child! The years passed quickly and we were blessed with four wonderful boys.
Yehudit‘s brother and his wife were Shomer Shabbat, and we began learning about the beauty of Shabbat and Kashrut. I studied with Rabbi Schwarzmer, from an organization called Ashreinu. I was a regular at minyan 7 days a week and took on shiurim on Halacha, Chumash and Gemara with Rabbi Rauch. Time passed and although I embraced Judaism, I felt no need to convert.
It was Simchat Torah and the sun danced across the cloud lined blue sky as if dancing along with the hakafot. Everyone was dancing and singing, that is everyone except for me. I was not allowed to carry the Torah or get an aliyah. I felt a deep sadness that permeated every fiber of my being. As I sat in the Shul I felt an excruciating pain in my stomach. The pain was so intense that I almost passed out. I screamed out to Hashem as the tears ran down my face; “I will do it!” and then the pain subsided. It was that day that I began the conversion process and 9 months later I was a kosher Jew. Yehudit and I had a kosher wedding under the chuppa.
As I evolved spiritually, so did my art. I began my art career early by drawing from the world around me. At sixteen I was an accomplished artist using pen and ink or acrylics to create images of the rural South. It was one Rosh Hashanah after my conversion that I prayed to Hashem that He use me as a shaliach to bring His holy images into the world. I began to notice a change in my art. I was inspired by the weekly parsha, dreams and sometimes visions that I experienced. I captured all of these inspirations in my art. It was no longer just a pretty image but an image that draws you towards Hashem.
We discussed making aliyah many times and decided last April after meeting Rabbi Brody that the time was right. I resigned from my Senior Project Manager position at Amgen Inc. where I had worked for over seventeen years. We sold most of our possessions and made our way to Eretz Israel. We knew that there would be challenges but we had no idea how the experience would forever change us. The day our plane landed at Ben Gurion airport our house fell out of escrow. The reality set in when we began paying the mortgage in Los Angeles and the rent in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Needless to say our resources dwindled quickly. We found comfort in reading the Garden of Emuna and pouring our heart out to Hashem each day in personal prayer. Hashem brought us to the point where we were nullified and totally dependent on him. Just as quickly as we were brought to the point of despair, we were elevated to an unimaginable joy. Hashem brought us close to Him here in His Holy Land. We still have challenges but with the love and grace of Hashem we will get through them.
Here are some samples of Avraham Bell’s exquisite artwork:
1. Jonah in the Whale
2. Revival of the Moon
3. Tefillin
