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Hidden Holocaust Past Leads Artist Barbara Hines to Her First Israel Show
A chance phone call revealed her parents' secret, and the discovery reshaped her art ahead of Jerusalem In My Soul at the Castel Museum.
German-born artist Barbara Hines opens Jerusalem In My Soul, her first solo exhibition in Israel, at the Moshe Castel Museum of Jewish Israeli Art in Maale Adumim, the Press Service of Israel reports. The show runs October 15 to December 31, according to The Jerusalem Post. The Post calls it the result of a deep spiritual and personal journey that began when Hines discovered her family's hidden Holocaust history.
Hines grew up Christian in Australia and spent years exploring other faiths, including Hinduism and Buddhism, The Jerusalem Post reports. The Press Service of Israel adds Sufism to that list. Her life changed after a phone call between her son and her mother, the Post reports. When her son called his grandmother to tell her he had decided to convert to Judaism, she casually revealed that her own mother and grandmother were Jewish.
Unknown to Hines, both of her parents were Jewish survivors who hid in plain sight as German Christians to escape the Nazis, according to the Post. Her father had been dismissed from the Luftwaffe after his Jewish lineage was discovered, and her mother hid him throughout World War II. Traumatized by the war and fearing another Holocaust, they immigrated to Australia and kept their true identity a secret. The Press Service of Israel reports she learned that her paternal grandmother was Jewish.
The discovery transformed her art, The Jerusalem Post reports. Her work shifted from nature to biblical, Zionist and Israeli themes. As her religious observance grew, she began mixing earth from Israel into her paint to give the work deeper meaning. Her art has since been shown at the Holocaust Museum Houston and the Jerusalem Biennale, according to the Post.
After her husband, Gerald Hines, died in 2020, she fulfilled a lifelong dream and moved to Israel, The Jerusalem Post reports. She later met and married Rabbi Dr. Natan Ophir on May 29, 2026. Their first date was at the Castel Museum, the same place where she was offered this exhibition.