Mordechai's Dream

A processed portrait of Mordechai Zilberman (born in 1934) dressed in the clothes of his recently deceased partner Aryeh. On the left side of the frame is the hand of Mordechai’s caretaker, Rajoo. Jerusalem. Israel. Mordechai and Aryeh lived together as a couple for exactly sixty years. When Aryeh’s health deteriorated and he was hospitalized, they were terrified that they would not be safe at the hospital because they were in a same-sex relationship. It was on Aryeh’s eighty-eight birthday, exhausted by anxiety and pain, that they decided not to return to the hospital again. Mordechai told Aryeh that he could rest, and, on that night, Aryeh passed away at their mutual home. Mordechai is often wearing Aryeh’s clothes to feel closer to him.