Zvi Neta, chairman of Automotive Equipment and Vehicles Group, importer for Japanese firms Suzuki and Bridgestone, helped open the Time Tunnel – Japan and the Jews exhibition at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art last week.
Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, the ambassadors of Japan and Lithuania and the museum CEO were among the guests.
The exhibition is largely based on the story of Chiune Sugihara, who in the summer of 1940 issued more than 2,000 visas to Japan, saving over 6,000 Jews who managed to escape from Europe to Kobe in Japan.
Neta said, “I see the social involvement of the AEV Group as a huge value, and am happy to support a creative venture that is hard to remember when it was last done in Israel. I am convinced of the immense value of the exhibition from the artistic aspect and – no less than that – of its educational value.”
Highlights of the exhibition
AEV Group is the main sponsor of the exhibition, which is a rare artistic and educational venture that connects Japan and Israel. The exhibition brings together art displays created by a number of leading Japanese artists that relate to the Jewish narrative of rescue and death, especially during the Holocaust.
The highlight of the exhibition is works by Japanese master artist Tatsuo Miyajima. The five spaces of the exhibition all touch on the interface between interconnection of the histories of Israel and Japan on the 70th anniversary of relations between the countries.
Levy, who opened the event, emphasized the strength of the special relationship between Israel and Japan. “Over the years we have established warm relations in various fields, I am convinced that this exhibition will have a significant contribution in strengthening the relationship between the two countries.”