Finding refuge

One couple discovers peace and quiet in Magdiel after living in Tel Aviv.

By GLORIA DEUTSCH
Interior design (photo credit: URIEL MESSA)
Interior design
(photo credit: URIEL MESSA)
Hannah and Shimon Reznick gave up a four-story house in Tel Aviv two years ago to live in Magdiel in the Sharon after their three children grew up and left home.
She is a kindergarten teacher and he is a sculptor, and they were looking for a home that would be comfortable and easy to run and that would provide a backdrop for some of his work. “More than anything, we wanted space and clean lines,” he says, which is one of the reasons why not too many of his sculptures can be seen around the apartment. “I don’t like too much clutter.”
After the hustle and bustle of Tel Aviv, the pastoral quiet of Magdiel really appealed to them.
“It’s magic here,” he says. “We really feel we’ve found our refuge.”
Shimon was born in Ukraine in 1949 and came here with his parents when he was 10.
“We told the authorities we wanted to go to Herzliya as my uncle lived there and they sent us to Nazareth, assuring us that it was nearby,” he says with a smile.
Although he always loved art and studied photography, his first profession was in social work. At the age of 32 he decided he wanted to study art full-time, and went to college for three years while Hannah was the sole supporter of the family.
“We had an agreement,” she says, “and when I wanted to leave teaching to study to be a ganenet [kindergarten teacher], Shimon supported us alone.”
His family thought he was mad, but he followed his dream. He studied with some of Israel’s best teachers and was exposed to good sculpture during the three years he studied full-time. Today he is a highly respected sculptor and teacher whose work is exhibited around the country.
For a brief time they even went to live on Kibbutz Ginossar so Shimon could pursue his dream.
“I had a studio not far from [statesman and military commander] Yigal Allon’s grave,” he remembers. “It was inspiring, but we had to leave because Hannah didn’t like the life; having to work in the kitchens wasn’t so bad, but being separated all day from the children was too hard for her.”
For help in decorating their new home they engaged Dafna Gonen, who had worked for them in Tel Aviv.
“She’s very sensitive and knows instinctively what the client wants,” they say.
The Reznicks had several important requirements. Having a large dining room was one of these, as in Tel Aviv the dining room had been very small. To accommodate this need, they took one of the smaller bedrooms, making the five-room apartment into a four-room one, and now they have sufficient space to dine when the children, their partners and the grandchildren come to visit.
“On Friday night the home fills up again and there are 15 of us around the table,” says Hannah.
While Shimon’s wonderful iron sculptures are the primary source of decoration, he points out how the light fittings also fulfill that function.
“The ceiling light is a veritable sculpture,” he points out. “It and the matching wall lights are set at a specific angle so they reflect on the ceiling and give maximum light.”
The kitchen divider, too, is fitted with a colored light that gives off a warm glow. In the kitchen, the white cabinets are covered with glass, as is the fitted table.
They like to take their breakfast on the secluded balcony overlooking one of the town’s parks, or look out through the window of the master bedroom to an uninterrupted view of Petah Tikva and the Jerusalem hills.
With a talent like Shimon’s, a few carefully chosen sculptures and a vase or two of flowers are all that is needed to embellish the clean lines of the apartment.
He is known in the art world to be a specialist in working with iron, and he somehow manages to create pieces that are light and airy although working in a metal that is considered heavy.
He attributes this in part to his background as a healer, having studied this discipline as well.
“For me iron is alive, and I try to create figures which seem to be flying, where there appears to be no contact between the sculpture and the place on which it stands,” he says. And, indeed, the pieces have a delicacy and ephemeral quality which one would not usually associate with iron.
With a biography that includes many other activities, including working with deaf children in an experimental program, Shimon Reznick is finally doing what he loves unequivocally and he and Hannah both love their new location and enjoy their beautiful new home without any reservations.