“Heal the Heart”: Parkland Artist Channels Trauma of October 7 Attacks on Israel Into Quilt Project

Artist AJ Grossman.

A Parkland artist has created a quilt expressing her grief, fear, and anger over the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel.

AJ Grossman’s powerful fiber art project, which she began on Oct. 9, 2023, includes 240 Stars of David – each representing a hostage taken from Israel by the Islamist terror group Hamas. The quilt is titled tikkun ha-lev in Hebrew, which Grossman said translates to “heal the heart.”

Grossman, who is Jewish, said the piece reflects her raw emotions in the wake of the terrorist assault that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel, while also memorializing those affected.

“I was hoping to never finish this quilt, that everyone would be released,” Grossman said of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7. “But as the months passed, it became a way to process what I have witnessed in my lifetime — the Munich Olympics, the Achille Lauro hijacking, the hijacking at Entebbe, and many more massacres. Jews are just not safe in any part of the world.”

She hopes the quilt will spur conversations “about the shared trauma and resilience of the Jewish community in the face of persistent challenges,” including a frightening surge in global antisemitism post-Oct. 7.

Seventy-three of the hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, including at least 34 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces.

Grossman’s quilt is larger than most – about 94 inches high and 65 inches wide – with each of its 240 stars hand-cut. She sewed and quilted the piece by machine, then hand-finished the piece.

The smaller stars on the quilt represent Israeli children taken hostage, while larger stars represent adults. Grossman quilted the piece in a circular shape, with a red center spreading outward to reflect the ripple effects of Oct. 7.

“I felt like I had to do something” to honor the hostages, said Grossman. “It’s almost like you’re sitting Shiva, and it’s just really hard to see this tragedy play out and the hostages still being held. It’s very unsettling. This is a way for people to understand the magnitude of what [the number of hostages in Gaza] would look like because the quilt is that big.”

A painter and quilter, Grossman is known for her exploration of lines, movement, and rhythms in her work. Her pieces have been hailed for creating “visual narratives,” and she often uses art to address societal and personal themes, including her emotional connection to the Holocaust.

Grossman has been at work for years on a quilt honoring the six million Jews killed in the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany. The quilt will ultimately include six million hand-cut stars, she said.

Most of Grossman’s ancestors were killed by the Nazis and their allies during the Holocaust, she said. She spent her childhood surrounded by survivors whose arms were tattooed with the prisoner numbers they received in Nazi concentration camps.

Grossman listened raptly to survivors’ stories in Manhattan’s Garment District, where her father worked. Born in Brooklyn, she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and followed in her dad’s garment-business footsteps, working for years as a successful fashion designer on 7th Avenue.

She said the Oct. 7 attacks left her horrified and evoked memories of past Jewish trauma, including the Holocaust and the slaughter of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

“I really needed a way to help me heal” after Oct. 7, which is how she came to call the quilt tikkun ha-lev, Grossman said.

Grossman’s quilt also serves as a symbol of Jewish representation in the arts following Oct. 7. In the wake of the attacks, some members of the South Florida quilting community made pieces that said, “Free Palestine,” “and a lot of my quilting friends were not in support of what I was doing, because their allegiance was different than mine,” she said.

Grossman’s quilt will be displayed at the South Florida Quilt Expo, held March 8 and 9 at the Charles F. Dodge Center in Pembroke Pines.

“I hope to never, ever make another quilt like this,” she said.

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