Laura Ben-David left us on July 17, at only 56 years old, after a battle with ovarian cancer. But as a photographer, writer, mother, grandmother, wife, best friend, and advocate for Israel and the Jewish people, she left us with so much.
Laura was born in Yonkers, N.Y., and moved to Monsey with her family at age three. She moved to Boca Raton, Fla., in 1993, and then made aliyah on the first Nefesh B’Nefesh flight in 2002 with her husband Lawrence and four children.
During this transition, she authored Moving Up: An Aliyah Journal, a personal account of her transition from Florida to Israel. Though trained as a nurse, she never loved the job: “I was a great caregiver but a lousy nurse,” she would say. Lucky for us she turned instead to more creative ventures and advocacy, taking up photography, marketing, and advocating for Israel and the Jewish people, especially the “lost tribes” – Jewish communities as far-flung as Latin America and the India/China border.
I got to know Laura in the early days of Twitter, when people used the app to network, to help one another, and to build relationships. The Anglo community (as the English-speaking community in Israel is known) held “tweetups,” and with so much in common, we soon became staples in each other’s lives.
As we observed the Jewish community around us growing more and more extreme – removing images of women from publications, refusing them divorces, and telling women to sit in the back of the bus – we would often lament the abuse being done in the name of Torah. It pained us both to see the Judaism we loved being warped into something we didn’t recognize. Eventually she became a founding board member for the organization Chochmat Nashim I co-created to stand up for a healthy Torah Judaism where women were seen and heard.
As part of the organization’s raison d’etre, we traveled to Lakewood, N.J., to take testimony from agunot about their travails. Laura was by my side, and when someone nearly ran us down in the parking lot of a girls’ school for not being “tzni’us,” she called the Lakewood chief of police to have the driver brought in. When Chochmat Nashim protested at the beit din to free women from dead marriages, Laura documented it all, capturing not just the event, but the emotions and relationships behind it.
But while she used her lens to fight beside me for justice, her greatest pleasure was documenting the beauty of the Jewish people, of Israel, and of Judaism. In her position as director of marketing for Shavei Israel, an organization that helped far-flung communities connect to the wider Jewish world, she traveled to India to photograph the aliyah journey of the Bnei Menashe, Jews who lived on the India/China border for millennia. She also spoke around the world in Jewish communities and helped them come home.
Laura’s photography catalog captured a wide array of subjects: Old City landscapes with twinkling lights in the soft navy night, snow-capped trees rooted in Jerusalem, the rolling hills of Gush Etzion, birds in flight over the Hula Valley, seascapes and mountaintops all over Israel. She was fascinated by the flora and fauna of this beautiful land – vibrant frogs on lily pads, bright red poppies in bloom, wide open skies, branches contrasting with warm sunsets – and captured them for us all.
In her portraiture, she brought her subjects to life, whether powerful images of Bnei Menashe weddings, the faces of new olim landing in Israel, kohanim reciting the priestly blessing at the Kotel, soldiers in uniform, or her children reflected in the lights of the Chanukah menorah or on the beach with sun-soaked smiles.
Her extensive and award-winning photography was featured in an exhibition, “Beautiful Israel: The People and The Land Through the Lens of Laura Ben-David,” which debuted in the last few months of her life, now featured at the cancer center at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, bringing joy and inspiration to nurses, doctors, and patients alike.
The increasing erasure of women in Orthodox media was a particular pain point for Laura, as someone who had grown up before it took hold. When Chochmat Nashim was asked to create a stock photo bank of images of Jewish women and girls to counter this trend, it was Laura who convinced me we could do it. “I want to do it,” she said when I told her I didn’t have the funds to pay photographer and model fees. “This has to exist. Even if no one uses it, it has to exist on principle.” She asked me to let her give in the way that she could.
What began as The Jewish Life Photo Bank is now renamed The Laura Ben-David Jewish Life Photo Bank and includes nearly two thousand images of women, girls, and families from around the Jewish world. The models are all volunteers, as are most of the photographers, all taking their time and energy to represent Jewish life, complete with the women and girls who are part of it. We squeezed in photoshoots and trips whenever we could, and Laura painstakingly edited the images of which she was so proud.
Laura reinvented herself numerous times. She had careers as, among other things, a preschool teacher, makeup artist, marketer, and, of course, photographer, but no matter how she focused her time, she always stayed true to who she was: a lover of Israel, the Jewish people, justice, and her incredible family. She was mother to six children – three boys and three girls (two born in Israel) – with her then-husband Lawrence. Though they divorced in 2018, the two remained dedicated parents and partners in raising their children and loving their grandchildren.
In 2023, in a fairytale wedding, Laura and Raphael (Ray) Barishansky of Teaneck were married, after a mainly online courtship. I made the shidduch, and it is one of my most treasured accomplishments. They taught everyone around them how nothing is truly a barrier when love is the motivator.
While many speak of Laura as a photographer, a writer, and a friend, I want to let a few of her children and grandchildren describe what she means to them and the legacy she leaves for them:
“Mimi was our superhero. She was the most beautiful, no matter what. She was always there for us, even when it was hard for her. She never gave up. She always made sure to come to our performances, concerts, birthdays and wherever else. She would comfort us when we were sad and her kisses always made everything better.” Emma Rotem, 8.5 years old
“Mimi was such a special person. She was adventurous. She was fun. She did so many things in her life that other people would never do in their long life. She was one of the best grandparents you could ask for.” Yael Hodaya Gross, 11.5 years old
“Her smile lit up the world, and her presence brought warmth and light into every room she entered. She was my mother and my best friend, and she will be missed tremendously each and every day. One of her favorite sayings and one she truly lived by was, ‘Don’t be scared to be scared.’ She believed fear wasn’t something to run from, but something to guide us. Her strength, light, and wisdom continue to shape me, and I’ll keep looking for her in the beauty of the world – in sunsets, in rainbows, and in the quiet beauty that surrounds me. Lexi Rotem
And Laura’s legacy in her own words that, in my opinion, we should all live by: “I’ve always more or less lived by the following mantra – why stop now? ‘It’s not about how much time we have, but how fully we live it.’
“I’m making the most of every day. Maybe that means having dessert first for a change… None of us knows how much time we have, but we do get to choose how we spend it, and who we spend it with. And I choose joy, love, and moments with the people who matter. Please, let’s make them count.”
Laura is survived by her husband, Raphael M. Barishansky, her children Shyra, Lexi, Eitan, Ezra, Kobi, and Maya, and grandchildren, along with her mother, sisters, brother, extended family, and a global community of friends, readers, and admirers who were touched by her light and her love of life.
