Healing Trauma Through Art: How Survivors Transform Their Lives | Tomer Peretz

[00:00:00] Can Art Heal Trauma and Help People Feel Whole Again? They're healing themselves. The other thing, they're talking about their experience. They feel more comfortable doing that through art versus speaking in an interview. And then we take their work and put it in a museum. The process is very therapeutic. Even now, I don't do art because I'm trying to heal someone.

[00:00:24] I'll talk about Noam. She's right here. So Noam went to the Nova in order to paint, in order to create. And she went with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend got murdered. Out of 25 people inside the trash bin she was hiding, only four of them survived. But for a year and a half, because of her trauma, she couldn't even get back on the canvas. Now she can do it and it's amazing. And it's happening now, like as we speak.

[00:00:50] You know, if I can bring more people to tell their story on the canvas and help them out, that's our goal. Welcome to the Israeli Trailblazers show. Let's be honest. Israel is wildly misunderstood and wildly impactful. Israeli brainpower is improving lives far beyond its borders.

[00:01:14] A tiny country with huge global contributions from climate tech to lab-grown meat, cybersecurity, medicine, AI, you name it. I'm your host, Jennifer Weissman. After living in Israel, I'm now back in America and I see it clearly. The headlines are misleading. The real story of Israelis are one of resilience, generosity, and global impact.

[00:01:37] And today we're stepping into a different kind of story. One that doesn't start in a lab or with a startup, but rather in a studio filled with heart. We're exploring art, not just the kind you hang on your wall, but the kind that heals. Art that transforms unspeakable pain into something hopeful.

[00:02:00] My guest today is Tomer Peretz, an Israeli artist based in Los Angeles, who is redefining what art can do to heal trauma. His work, The Eight Project, is an art therapy and trauma healing model built for survivors of mass trauma. He's helping people process pain and reclaim their voice.

[00:02:24] And in the wake of October 7th, Tomer has turned his creativity as a lifeline for others. Let's dial into October 7th. You were in Israel for a wedding with your family. Yeah. Take me through what happened and how you came to understand the Hamas terror attack and what your plan became. I woke up into the alarm at like quarter to seven, maybe, or seven.

[00:02:51] And my kids and my nephews were at the other bathroom, which was the safe room already, the Mahat. I just jumped into it, grabbed my phone. I watched videos. I spoke with my family. And very, very quick, I realized that it's a different game. I was not shocked. I was not surprised. I know the Hamas capabilities and what they're into and what they believe in. I grew up on this. A few hours went by and I started to see how can I volunteer.

[00:03:19] The only people that got back to me were people from Zaka. I joined them and helped them out. So you left Tel Aviv, you got in a car and you went with Zaka. And their job is after people have passed away, they retrieve the bodies and start a respectful burial process. That's what Zaka does. Yeah. You had no experience in this, but you went. What did you see? Where did you go? We first went to the Nova site and then saw some few buddies there.

[00:03:49] And we picked up some stretchers. We got a mission to pick up stretchers and go into Kibbutz Berry and start to recover there. And that's what we did. What I saw there, I saw a lot of that people. We just started to pick them up, put them in bags and put them in the cooling trucks. That's it. So let's fast forward a little bit. How did life become for you in LA post October 7th?

[00:04:15] When I arrived to Los Angeles, I realized that everything I've been doing up until now was okay and good, but had no purpose. And I got into a depression. I don't want to do anything anymore. I just came back from Israel. I recovered dead bodies. And what am I going to do now? Like going back to my studio or my other businesses and do what? And then I realized that the only thing I want to do is being around people who took a part in this war.

[00:04:43] So on one side, my entire career, business and financial life crashed. And on the other hand, I started to hang out at my studio with different survivors. And that was the only thing I wanted to do up until now. I cannot do anything besides creating about their process and the war. And it's the only thing I can do if I not do anything else. So you have survivors.

[00:05:09] Like, I think I read that Andre Kozlov, who was a hostage who survived eight months of physical and psychological horror. He made art with you recently. He was rescued one year ago. So what happens? Andre comes to LA and he hangs out with you in your studio. How does that work? Andre texted me and he saw what I do with so many others. And he said, listen, I want to come to work with the studio. I'm like, yeah, of course. So we held him out and I brought him to Los Angeles.

[00:05:39] And how does it work? It's every time a different process because every person works different. Every artist works different. We talk a lot and we really dive into the little details of the story. And we try to find out what do we want to tell? What will be our inspiration from that story? Are we going to paint? Are we going to draw? Are we going to take a photo? So it depends.

[00:06:01] We just talk a lot and getting connected on a very high level and we start to draw and create about that. It's very natural. There is no schematic or formula to it. We need to connect to each other. We have to spend some time together in order to get to a very high level of connection. His experience is insane. And I found it very interesting to listen to. So I was asking a lot of questions.

[00:06:30] And just organically, we started to create and paint about his story. How many survivors have you worked with so far? Eight, nine thousand, maybe. A thousand? A lot. Yeah. I have groups here. Twenty, thirty people almost every other week for a year and a half. Yeah. You're kidding. And these are only October 7th survivors? It's from the whole war.

[00:06:55] Even reserves who served in Gaza or Lebanon or people who got evacuated from the north of Israel or any type of a person who got affected by the war somehow from Israel. It's really amazing. What happens to the art? Now we are showing our exhibition at the Museum of Tolerance. The exhibition called Art Will Set You Free. And a big part of the work I did with the survivors is part of the show now. Art Will Set You Free.

[00:07:21] You're the first artist in residence for the Museum of Tolerance, I think. Yeah. That's a big honor. I guess so. This museum is bringing anywhere from 100 to 200 students, non-Jews, to the museum. So there is hundreds of people that are going through this exhibit every day. And I'm proud of that part more than anything else. Yeah. Yeah. I want to tell my story to people who are outside our echo chamber because we tell our

[00:07:49] story to people that don't even know where Israel is on the app. What kind of feedback are you hearing from the students? Very good. Very, very positive. We think because of the media that everybody hates us. But I realize that people just don't know. Most people don't know. And when you tell them and you don't try to convince them, hey, they leave me out, the good, they're the bad. If you just tell your story from a different perspective, and especially through art, because you bring visual to the context, I think it works amazing.

[00:08:19] We finally crossed the echo chamber with this. So that makes me happy. What you're talking about healing through art resonates far beyond being Jewish, right? It's just any kind of trauma. You just happen to be working with the Jewish trauma. I work with the Jewish people now because we do need it. We are being attacked all over. I'm interested in many other communities. But right now, the Jewish people needs us. And they need this.

[00:08:48] And I'm focusing specifically about my brothers and sisters. And that's what I care about. I care about the Jewish people. I care about Israelis. I care about American Jewish people. And any Jewish person around the world, we've flipped people's lives, literally changed people's lives with us. That's amazing. That's why we keep on doing this, because the results of these people who can create, they come here, they paint for hours. They want to come back. And another day, and another day. And they're smiling. And they're happy. And they're telling those stories.

[00:09:18] In one way, they're healing themselves. The other thing, they're talking about their experience. They feel more comfortable doing that through art versus speaking in an interview if they feel very comfortable doing so. And then we take their work and put it in a museum. So what's better than that? Total win-win. Let me ask you what you've seen. You've had thousands of people come. Do people come in for a week or two at a time? Or how long is the process? It depends on a person how much they can stay around.

[00:09:48] Now we're working on a new model that will start, I believe, in the next two or three months. We are creating all these new programs where we bring Jewish people from any place around the world to work with us and help them to tell their story. And what have you seen? At the beginning, they come in trauma, depressed. And when they're leaving, what are you seeing? You have a story you can share? I'll talk about Noam. She's right here.

[00:10:18] Her story is insane. I'm not going to get into it. I don't want to make it too graphic. But she went through hell. And for a year and a half, she couldn't get back to work. She couldn't paint. Very depressed. Very, very depressed. And then she came here. And after a few hours, we started to paint. And since then, she doesn't leave the studio. But she doesn't want to leave the studio. You know, she's still... And her painting is kind of realism style.

[00:10:44] And she's telling the story of her boyfriend and how they met. And I see it as a renaissance for her because finally, you know, she can paint back. You know, she's an artist. This is what she did for so many years. You are absolutely amazing. Your work is so important. And you've got people coming in for weeks at a time. This is not inexpensive. How are you funded? At the beginning of the first few months, I did it all out of my bucket.

[00:11:11] But then I realized that, okay, it doesn't work like that. So I created my 501c3 nonprofit. It's called The 8th Project. And now we are fundraising for that. We have different supporters. We need more. It's not enough. There are some survivors that are literally waiting for us to come. And we just need more fun to bring them over. We give them everything they can in order to just create. Just tell your story and don't stop. And the people that have gone through the program and come out the other side,

[00:11:41] are they, would you say, on the path to healing? Yeah. Whoever keeps coming here for a few weeks, absolutely. 100% success. That was Tomer Peretz, a man who has seen unimaginable horror and chooses creating beauty from ashes. He's an example of another Israeli quietly helping heal our world. Not with headlines or even hashtags, but with his heart.

[00:12:10] Stories like this rarely make the news, but they should. If this episode moved you, please share it with friends. Post it on your socials. And let's make sure the world learns about bold thinkers and big ideas like Tomer. Until next time, I'm Jennifer Weissman, and this is the Israeli Trailblazer Show.