These studies break the heart. But they also strengthen the heart, too. As the recorder, the works bring about a sense of greatness and kinship, a sense of belonging to a greatness that spans all time and space. The subjects express an inextinguishable appetite for life.

The Jews have obtained a good testimony after 4 thousand years of exile, persecution and expulsion. Kingdoms have risen and kingdoms have fallen, yet they are still here, they have remained at the fore front of scientific breakthrough and technological advances that have not only changed history, but have shaped the modern world today. Yet they are still hated.

The Jews have been great truth-tellers and that is one reason they have been hated. A prophet will be feared and sometimes honoured, but when have they been loved? Yet a prophet must prophesy and the Jews will persist in pursuing truth, as they see it, where ever it leads. Jewish history teaches us if anything can, that there is indeed a purpose to human existence and that we are not just born to live and die like beasts.

- Pete Wheeler, Artist statement, February 2003.