“Couple in a Can” is a renowned piece by artist Benjamin Levi, born in 1940 in the Kerem HaTeimanim quarter of Tel Aviv, a neighborhood predominantly inhabited by Yemenite Jews. In his large family of nine children, his father was a street vendor, carting goods for sale.
Beni's life took a romantic turn when he met Hana in Haifa in 1956, a period when the city was a hub of industrial and scientific innovation. Hana's family had fled Amsterdam just before World War II. Her father went on to become a prominent scientist at the Technion. The couple had four children, and as they grew older, Hana pursued piano lessons, where she excelled.
Today, Benjamin and Hana's family resides in Ein Hod, their home becoming a convivial gathering place for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Besides their residence in Ein Hod, they also maintain homes in Tel Aviv and New York, embracing a life enriched by culture, family, and history.
The streets of the artists' village of Ein Hod, strewn with autumn leaves, have a unique charm. Slightly worn by time, curvilinear and genuinely charming, they are shrouded in an atmosphere of kindness. Walking from the museum of Janko Dada, the founder of Dada, to the bronze sculptures of Benjamin Levi, you are greeted at every step by art in the most unexpected manifestations. This village has experienced a lot: from liveliness to decline, when houses stood empty, to its rebirth. The walls of its houses are mute witnesses of eras, cultures, the change of the Arab population by the descendants of Saladin's troops to Jewish Dada artists. The stones of these walls contain stories ranging from the times of the Crusaders, through the Arab heritage, to the Jewish restoration.
Today, sculptors, designers, musicians, architects, actors, singers, poets, jewelers, and potters live and work in Ein Hod. Many of them invite visitors to their workshops, organizing master classes and exhibitions. Ein Hod has no aspirations for high art or display of masterpieces, but there is a special atmosphere of simplicity, hospitality and pluralism, attractive in its ease and picturesqueness. Translated with Google Translate
