The Charlotte Jewish News- February 2026- Page 10
A Portrait of Community: Commissioned Painting Anchors Security-Social Lobby at Shalom Park
The artist, Tara Spil
By Terri Beattie
A newly commissioned painting now greets visitors in the Social Lobby at the main entrance of Shalom Park, offering a powerful visual expression of safety, belonging, and collective identity.
The work, titled“ Counted, 2025,” was commissioned as part of the campus’ s Security Lobby Project and reflects a deliberate effort to ensure that enhanced security is paired with warmth, meaning, and connection.
The artwork was commissioned by the Foundation of Shalom Park in honor of The Leon Levine Foundation’ s investments in community security needs, including the 2025 lobby project aimed at not only enhancing campus security but
Temple Beth El Israel Scholar in Residence Tal Becker: Navigating Complexity with Courage
By Rabbi Beth Nichols and Rabbi Lexi Erdheim
In this moment, when conversations about Israel feel both urgent and fraught, so many of us are searching for voices that provide not only expertise, but moral clarity, nuance, and relational wisdom. Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza have raised fundamental questions not only about Israel as a nation, but about the nature of our relationship to the state, its government, and its people.
This moment has elevated profound questions about identity, peoplehood, the ethics of power, moral responsibility, and perhaps most importantly, how to hold complexity and value humanity when political rhetoric has made deep conversation, uncertainty, and nuance nearly impossible.
This February, Temple Beth El will welcome Tal Becker as its Israel Scholar in Residence for a weekend of learning and conversation.
In so many ways, Tal Becker has provided the thoughtful, curious, heartfelt, voice of expertise that many of us have been searching for. also ensuring that the warmth of gathering, connection, and belonging can be felt by all who enter.
Created by Charlotte-based artist Tara Spil,“ Counted, 2025” is a 30-inch by 40-inch oil on canvas composed of exactly 32,500 individual brushstrokes. Each brushstroke represents one Jewish person living in the greater Charlotte metropolitan region. Through this visual census, Spil explored population and presence – considering, stroke by stroke, how each individual life contributes to a larger communal tapestry.
“ Each mark stands on its own,” Spil said,“ but it only becomes complete when seen together. I wanted the painting to reflect how we are singular and yet inseparable – how community is built through presence, care, and shared responsibility.”
Themes of light and community emerge as the painting builds through layered textures and movement, forming a collective landscape that feels both protective and expansive.
The idea behind the commission was to do more than decorate a secure space, it would represent the people it protects. To ground the concept, they leveraged a recent community impact study provided by Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte,
He models what it means to care deeply about the State of Israel, while still struggling with big, uncomfortable questions about moral complexity and responsibility. He does so all through the lens of a respected and accomplished lawyer, diplomat, negotiator, and educator. Becker speaks to the head, the heart, and the conscience at the same time.
This is why Temple Beth El is thrilled to host Tal Becker as part of our Ahavat Medinat Yisrael( Love for the State of Israel) initiative on Feb. 20-21. The Ahavat Medinat Yisrael initiative is built on the simple idea of cultivating a mature, loving, and curious relationship with the State of Israel, a relationship that can hold both pride and heartbreak, history, and hope. The initiative invites our community to engage Israel with honesty, curiosity, and care, even when the questions are difficult.
Recognizing the significance of this moment, Temple Beth El is partnering with Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte to help ensure this program reaches and resonates across the entire community. At its core, Federation’ s which estimated the Jewish population of the Charlotte metro region at approximately 32,500 individuals.
Spil is known for her data-driven abstract art, often incorporating community statistics into large-scale works to raise awareness around social issues. Her practice blends social commentary with an impressionistic sensibility influenced by light, color, and North Carolina landscapes.
A founder of Charlotte Plein Air, Spil is deeply embedded in the local art scene and brings a background in nonprofit work alongside her BFA from Western Carolina University.
Her work frequently explores themes of mental health, inequality, and collective responsibility, making her a natural choice for this commission.
Shalom Park is a place where all in our growing Jewish community should feel welcome, safe, and connected. This project was made possible through the generosity, partnership, and financial support of our community, whose belief in shared space, security, and belonging brought this vision to life. This 2025 lobby project not only enhances campus security, but also ensures that the warmth of gathering, connection, and belonging can be felt by all who enter.
“ As doors open into this space,” Terri Beattie, Executive Director, Foundation of Shalom Park noted,“ people are reminded that security and community are not separate ideas. Together, role is to convene, connect, and strengthen Jewish communal life, particularly around issues that shape our shared future. By collaborating on this lecture, Federation and Temple Beth El are signaling a shared commitment to thoughtful, values-driven Israel engagement that invites broad participation, elevates civil discourse, and affirms that grappling with nuance is not the work of any single institution, but a collective communal responsibility.
Throughout his career, Becker has, in the words of Lin-Manuel Miranda, been“ in the room where it happens.” Having served as a lead negotiator in multiple rounds of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Becker speaks from the lived reality of decisions that carry enormous human consequence.
As a principal drafter of key United Nations submissions and international agreements, he brings firsthand understanding of how global policy, Jewish values, and real-time danger intersect. Despite the frustration and hard realities of those environments, Becker has maintained an optimistic viewpoint, articulating hope without naivete.
After decades in high-stakes public service, Becker chose to do something intrinsically Jewish with his career: he chose to teach, to transmit wisdom and to shape the moral imagination of the Jewish people.
As a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Becker helps craft the intellectual and moral frameworks that thousands of rabbis, educators, and Jewish leaders bring back to their communities.
He is a leading member of the Institute’ s iEngage research seminar which produces the premier educational program on Israel engagement in North America, working to strengthen and reimagine the relationship between Israel and World Jewry. Becker views teaching not as an alternative to public service, but as a continuation of it, offering communities the tools to engage Israel thoughtfully, lovingly, and with moral seriousness. By sharing not only what he knows but how he thinks, he empowers Jews to navigate complexity with courage and humility.
Despite a storied career that has taken him from negotiating
they create the conditions for flourishing Jewish life – today and for generations to come.”
The Foundation of Shalom Park, a 501( c)( 3) nonprofit organization, owns and manages the properties and facilities that support most of the Jewish organizations located on the central campus of Shalom Park. For more information about the Foundation of Shalom Park and its mission, visit www. ShalomCharlotte. org.
Tal Becker
rooms to international courts, Tal Becker arrives not with ego, but with humility, warmth, and a disarming sense of humor. He teaches with heart, listens generously, and makes even the most complex ideas feel grounded and human.
We hope you’ ll join us for a weekend of learning that offers a chance to deepen your relationship with Israel through wisdom rather than slogans, to enter a safe and thoughtful space where real questions are welcomed, and to leave feeling more connected, more grounded, and maybe even just a little more hopeful.