I chose Bela Ya’ air Hazan as my Unsung Hero because I felt a connection between us. She was Jewish like me, and she put others before herself. I want to have the same selflesses as her. Bela possessed compassion, courage, humility, selflessness, and valor. 

As a teenager, Bela became a member of the He-Halutz ha-Za’ir-Dror Zionist youth movement. Her family's values contributed to her selflessness and strong Jewish culture. Bela helped many Jewish people during the time of World War II. by creating false identification documents. She did this by finding a job as an interpreter in the Grodno Gestapo headquarters. She stole stamped papers for preparing false identities, which led to her saving many Jewish people's lives. During the time between 1939-1945, Jewish people were endangered and killed by the Nazis. Bela helped to conceal their identities by forging their documents. 

For my artwork, I wanted to incorporate what was going on at the time, photos of Bela, what she did, and her physically doing it. My artwork expresses Bela’s compassion, humility, and valor. I wanted to express all of these traits in my piece. Most people wouldn't have the courage and kindness to do what she did. She put her life at risk, and even when she was captured she never gave up and was still trying to find ways to help people. I wanted to combine multiple kinds of materials to express different aspects of her story. I added a photo of her and her family to express her childhood, newspapers of what was going on at the time, a drawing of her, a fake paper to symbolize what she made, and an illustration of her making fake papers.  

A lesson I learned from Bela Ya’ari Hazan is to put yourself forward and always think about others. Many people are suffering in the world today, and, if someone is suffering, you should help them any way you can. I hope when people look at my art piece they feel inspired by Bela’s compassion and they recognize the value of being selfless.