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| DATE | 2026-01-13 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] =?utf-8?q?Award-winning_photojournalist_launch?=
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNhW2VSn8ZM
Award-winning photojournalist launches first book, ‘October 7th, Bearing
Witness’
jns.org
Award-winning photojournalist launches first book, ‘October 7th, Bearing
Witness’
4–5 minutes
(Oct. 5, 2025 / Chen G. Schimmel)
“October 7th, Bearing Witness” by Chen G. Schimmel book cover. Credit:
Courtesy.
Photojournalist Chen G. Schimmel, winner of the 2024 “Local Testimony
Photograph of the Year Award,” announced today the release of her first
book, October 7th, Bearing Witness.
Now available in stores and online, it documents the aftermath of Oct.
7, 2023, through searing photographs, testimonies, personal letters,
eulogies, biblical verses and quotations. Proceeds will go to the Summit
Institute’s “Dror” program, which helps rehabilitate IDF veterans coping
with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Only days after Oct. 7, Schimmel, 26, who grew up in London and
immigrated to Israel eight years ago, made her way to Kibbutz Be’eri to
bear witness. There, she documented the devastation: the ruined homes
and kibbutzim, the emergency teams on site, the families forced to
evacuate and the work of ZAKA rescue teams.
Photojournalist Chen G. Schimmel, winner of the Local Testimony
Photograph of the Year Award and creator of “October 7th, Bearing
Witness.” Credit: Courtesy.
For the past two years, Schimmel has documented the sensitivity, the
pain and the hope of the families of hostages, survivors of the Nova
music festival, soldiers and reservists, and the people of Israel in
their most difficult hour.
From this body of work came October 7th, Bearing Witness, which combines
photographs with testimonies, eulogies, personal letters, biblical
verses and quotations to serve as a visual testimony of the events that
have shaped Israeli society since that day.
“Two days after Oct. 7, I went to Be’eri. The floors and walls were
covered in blood. With one hand, I photographed, and with the other, I
helped clean. The silence and the smell will stay with me forever. I
knew I was standing in a fragment of history that must never be
forgotten,” Schimmel recalls.
Since then, she has continued to capture intimate and searing moments,
documenting hostage families such as those of Omer Wenkert, Evyatar
David and Emily Hand, as well as wounded soldiers and displaced
communities, survivors of Nova and scenes from Gaza, including the
abandoned armchair of Yahya Sinwar. “It was a small symbol of victory
amid an ocean of pain. I promised myself to keep photographing, even in
the hardest moments, for the families, for future generations, for our
country,” she adds.
The book is both a historical document and a testimony of grief
alongside resilience. Its cover features a haunting image: handprints on
the charred wall of a home in Be’eri. Months later, on the March of the
Living, Schimmel stood inside an Auschwitz gas chamber and photographed
the faint handprints and scratch marks left by victims in their final
moments. Seen together, the two images speak across time. For Schimmel,
the connection is deeply personal. As the granddaughter of a Holocaust
survivor, these traces shape her vow: Never Again.
In the book’s foreword, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and first lady
Michal Herzog write: “ … As we reflect on these horrors, we must
remember that it is through the lens of courageous photographers that
the world has come to understand the depth of the atrocity. … Among
these brave storytellers is Chen G. Schimmel, who, like many others, has
borne witness to the unspeakable, making sure that future generations
will remember.”
“Shadows of Be’eri.” Photo by Chen Schimmel.
Schimmel’s work has already received wide recognition. She won the 2024
Local Testimony Photograph of the Year award and was named by The
Jerusalem Post as one of its international “25 Young Visionaries,” a
recognition of her place among the most influential young Jewish voices
today.
Out of a sense of mission, Schimmel has dedicated all proceeds from the
book to the Summit Institute’s “Dror” program, which supports IDF
veterans coping with post-traumatic stress disorder. The program
provides psychological, emotional, social and professional
rehabilitation, recognizing that true recovery is only possible when all
of these needs are met together.
October 7th, Bearing Witness is available at select bookstores and
chengschimmel.com
Learn more about the “Dror” program: drorprogram.org.il.
Ruben Safir
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
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Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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