The 12 Tribes of Israel series would not have been possible without the help and support of many people. First and foremost, I am extremely grateful to Rabbi Meir Kaplan of Chabad Vancouver Island for providing me with this great honour to contribute to the new Centre for Jewish Life and Learning. Furthermore, I would like to thank him for trusting me with this project, and encouraging me with patience and humility from its initial conceptualization stages through to its completion. As a result, I gained confidence in my artistic abilities.
I would like to acknowledge Devora Levin for taking the time to meet with me for many hours to learn about the project so that she could write the beautiful explanations about the 12 Tribes of Israel project. Her Jewish scholarship is clearly reflected in the wonderful excerpts attached to each individual tribe and the overview paragraph of the whole series. I would also like to thank Fiona Prince for spending hours designing the project's booklet.
I am eternally grateful to my husband, Bryan, and my four beautiful children for their continued support throughout the year it took me to complete the project. They played an integral part in the process as my art critiques and confidence builders. I love them!
Finally, I am grateful for the inspiration given to me by each one of Leah and Rachel's twelve sons. Since completing the project I find myself turning to:
Reuben, when I need to see the gifts of life more clearly;
Simeon, when I need to listen more attentively to self and others;
Levi, when I need to be of greater service to others;
Judah, when I need to be more grateful for what I have;
Issachar, when I need to focus on the reward that comes from hard work;
Zebulun, when I need the fortitude to find the gifts in all life;
Dan, when I need to learn how to fairly judge self and others;
Naphtali, when I need to connect with my inner self more deeply;
Gad, when I need to remember to appreciate all the good fortune in my life;
Asher, when I need to share the abundance in my life;
Joseph, when I need to gather the strength to convert pain into light;
Benjamin, when I need to access the Divine energy housed in matter, and elevate it.