From Shock Satire to Sacred Healing: The Israeli Cartoonist Whose Art Reached the Vatican | Zeev Engelmayer

Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer built his career on outrageous, boundary-pushing satire. Then October 7 changed everything. The raw "postcards" he drew to process the trauma became a global phenomenon — one that crossed continents and landed on the Pope's desk at the Vatican. 

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Transcript

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 0:00

Every day I'm drawing things that people ask me to draw. The postcards talk with visuals. I'm drawing emotions. And then I decided that I don't want to draw the violence. I must find a way to draw something that will give us some hope. And a day after, in Tel Aviv, we had little rain in the morning and there was a rainbow. And I saw the rainbow and I thought it would be so wonderful if all the kidnapped kids in Gaza, and all of them were still kidnapped, could go on the rainbow and slide from Gaza to Tel Aviv on the rainbow. And I drew it and I put it in the internet. It was really surprising to me. Many, many people really liked it. Because I think in these terrible days, we really needed to believe that we are going to get out of it.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 0:55

What can we learn from Zev and his cheerful daily postcard campaign? Today we're speaking with an artist who doesn't just document history, he sends it out into the world in one clever postcard every day. And these postcards have taken Israel and the world by storm. The media won't tell you this, but Israelis, often misunderstood, are quietly transforming your world with bold innovations and unstoppable resilience. Here we uncover the stories that you're not gonna hear anywhere else. Zev Engelmeyer is a quirky humorist, world-famous cartoonist and illustrator, and he is sat at his kitchen table in Tel Aviv drawing hostages and soldiers and families and grief. But he adds parasols and rainbows and colorful flowers and Mary Poppins floating in to bring the hostages home. In a time of unbearable darkness, Zev offers a radical approach. He's creating optimism during Israel's grief, and his daily gift of hope is his postcard. What else can we learn from Zev and his cheerful daily postcard campaign? Welcome, Zev.

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 2:22

Hi, Jennifer.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 2:24

You're a very well-known cartoonist, illustrator in Israel, clearly, but really in the world. People know Zev Engelmeyer. And then October 7th happened, and you chose to start drawing a daily postcard. How did this come to be?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 2:41

I always wanted to create, no matter what happens, I'm creating things that are happy and things that are very sad. I always wanted art to be like life. So when the 7th happened, which was a terrible day, it was like an earthquake. We had sirens in the morning, and then we started seeing the pictures and the short videos from what's happening in the south. We couldn't believe it's real. Then I took a pencil and I drew the first drawing that I did on the 7th. I drew a drawing black and white after the Garnica of Picasso. And in the first two weeks of the war, I drew only black and white drawings, and I drew what's happening in the south, and I drew us sitting in the shelter during the sirens. And after two weeks, I drew the first colorful drawing. I drew a kibbutz, and I drew a very peaceful kibbutz with plants and the Migdal Maime, Tower of Water that is always in the kibbutzin. Very peaceful kibbutz, and underneath I wrote something terrible is about to happen. I wanted to confront the peacefulness with what happened, the terrible disaster that happened, of the violence. And it took me about five hours to draw it. It was very difficult drawing because I drew, I looked at pictures and I drew the terrible things that happened. It was the first days of the war, so we saw so much violence. And then I decided that I don't want to draw the violence. I must find a way to draw something that will give us some hope. And a day after, in Tel Aviv, we had little rain in the morning and there was a rainbow. And I saw the rainbow and I thought it would be so wonderful if all the kidnapped kids in Gaza, and all of them were still kidnapped, could go on the rainbow and slide from Gaza to Tel Aviv on the rainbow. And I drew it and I put it in the internet. It was really surprising to me. Many, many people really liked it. Because I think in these terrible days, we really needed to believe that we are going to get out of it. You know, it was days that we weren't even sure that the kidnapped people will ever come back. We didn't know what's going to happen. Only when I drew one of the hostages called Yafa Adar, she was called in the media sometimes Grandma Yafa. She was on the golf course. Yeah, yeah.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 5:15

Yes, what an image. I know exactly who you mean. How did you draw her, the grandmother?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 5:20

Because of my decision that I'm not going to draw the violence. I'm not going to draw her with the Hamas people with guns. I drew her coming back. Even though she was still hostage, I drew her coming back from being hostage. And instead of the Hamas people around her, I put a woman with colorful dresses spreading flowers in the air. A very, very happy drawing of her coming back. And by coincidence, four days after I drew it, she came back in the first time that the hostages came back, which was amazing. It was a coincidence. But because it was so soon after, many, many families of hostages asked me on that day to draw their loved ones that were still hostages. And on this day, I started what I call the project of the daily postcards. Every day I'm drawing things that people ask me to draw. Today I drew the mother of Aitan and Yair Horan. She's waiting for her son to come back. One of her sons came back. So it's an everyday thing, and I'm meeting them, and it's very, very emotional. How many postcards have you drawn so far, Zeb? A little more than 650.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 6:37

What is the meaning of your postcards for the Israeli people?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 6:42

In the beginning of the war, I drew it for myself because I wanted to disconnect from the media. When I draw, it's not disconnection. I am with it. I am thinking about it. And it was a surprise for me to realize that many people feel what I feel through the postcards. It's really emotional, and many people write to me. It was also a surprise that even people abroad, people that don't know anything about the stories. I had an exhibition in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania? Yeah. And the curator told me that people that didn't know anything about the war were really connected emotionally because every postcard also has a story with it. So they could identify with it. It was in Germany and in Italy. I had lectures there about the postcards and exhibitions. And I met people that don't know about what happened, but were really emotionally involved with it. They even cried during the lecture.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 7:39

Your postcards have taken the world by storm. For sure, Israel. But outside of Israel, people are seeing your work. What is it that they're connecting with, especially if they don't know that there's a war still going on in Israel?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 7:52

I don't think I'm drawing a national thing. I'm drawing a humanistic thing. I'm drawing emotions. I drew the mother of Aiden Oran and Yair hugging them, sons that she can't really hug because one is still captive. It's emotion, you know. Every mother can identify with it, and also every father. We know what it is to miss your son and worry for him for such a long time. So I think every postcard deals with something. You know, yesterday I drew a very emotional thing for me: a story about Hersch. His teacher wrote me about him that as a child, he always wanted to help. He wanted to carry things. She said she was his science teacher, and she said he always offered to help her with carrying things in class. And she spoke with his mother, but also told her that when she carried something, he always loved to help. So I drew him as a child offering his help to his mother. So it's really emotional. And I'm looking for it also. In the stories, when people write to me, I'm thinking, what moves me? What is the thing that I feel moved by? And sometimes it's very little things. Like what would be an example of that? A granddaughter of Alex Danzig wrote to me about him. He is a great man, he's amazing. She sent me movies and pictures of him and wrote me about him. He's one of the guys that started the walking to the camps in Poland. Yes. He's historian, but he's also very great man to speak with. And he's very academic. And she wrote to me about him. And in her letter, she wrote, and he also loved to walk barefoot in the fields. Which is a very small thing. You know, you are speaking about a guy that made great things, give lectures, and is historian. And he also loved to walk barefoot in the fields. And this is what I drew. I drew him a coming back from being hostage, walking barefoot in the field.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 9:58

Hostage families will contact you, or you'll read something in the news, and this is how you get the little kernel of the idea. Is that right?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 10:07

It's much more from the letters or talking with them or meeting with them sometimes than the news. The news is very violent. I decided that I'm not painting violence. So I want to deal with them as human beings, as people, and this is what I get from the letters.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 10:26

One of the most interesting, clever drawings that I've seen of your collection was Emily Damari and her hand. You made it three fingers into a tree with fresh green sprouts. What was the thinking behind that postcard?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 10:42

I saw her on the day she came back. She came back and she has uh fingers missing. And I was thinking maybe it's also a symbol of our state, the thing we are in now, because we are very deeply hurt, but I believe in optimism. I believe it's like this hand that becomes a blossoming tree. So this is the way I drew it with a colorful bird in the tank.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 11:07

Are you surprised how people all over the world love your postcards?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 11:13

Actually, yes, I am surprised, and it's an everyday surprise. People write to me from many countries and from Israel every day. It is a surprise to understand that what you do with hundreds of color markers, and it speaks to so many people. The Israeli ambassador in the Vatican gave one of the postcards as a present to the Pope, to Franciscus. You're kidding. And Franciscus, he took it and he said it's amazing, and then he prayed for the well-being of the hostages, and it was in Italian television, and then I got offers to make exhibitions in Italy in amazing places. And one of the exhibitions, it was in Carrara. Carrara is the city where Michelangelo got his marble, and it was in a gallery of a palace where there used to be paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. So, you know, it's a you're an amazing standing.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 12:09

I mean, postcard project endorsed by the Pope is unbelievable. But I think that your postcards are teaching the humanness behind tragedy, and maybe that's what you're sharing with the world is no matter where you are in the world, sadness, tragedy, horror happens. Using art to fight numbness, that's a pretty amazing contribution to mankind, I would say, Zev. So if you're sitting in San Diego or in Cape Town, South Africa, and you see a postcard from Zev, what do you think the message is for someone?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 12:48

I think the message is we must try the best that we can as humans to stop the violence everywhere. We as humans, we have goodness in us. You know, I'm using my creativeness to do whatever I can to stop it. And I don't really differentiate someone that is a victim of violence, it doesn't matter to me what is religion or whatever, I don't know, nationality. We must understand we have a world that we must make it a better place and be much more uh friendly and lovable. I don't know.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 13:25

You're so amazing. When will the postcard campaign end?

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 13:29

I don't really know. I learned through the daily postcards that you can never know how it uh influenced people. I thought that maybe when the kidnapped come back, but I'm not sure about it because there is more things to speak about. For me, the postcards is like us talking now with words, the postcards talk with visuals. One guy that I met that came back from being hostages, his name is Gaddy Moses, and uh three days after he came back, his family sent me a picture of him holding my drawing in the hospital. I drew him coming back to a field with potatoes because he worked with potatoes, and he came here to meet me. When he came, he made me a surprise. He brought me potatoes that he picked near the kibbutz. So it's amazing. I don't know if if it will stop or if it will change to something else. But this is also the amazing thing about art. After years of creating, I really feel fresh, like I started. Art is a I recommend it.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 14:33

You're absolutely amazing. You're giving the love and you're getting the love back. And you have an amazing story. It resonates with everyone all over the world. You show us that art is not something to be hung on the wall. And I think your daily postcards are kind of a global masterclass in resilience and imagination and hope. Thank you so much.

Guest, Cartoonist Zeev Engelmayer 14:58

Thank you very much, Anifer.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 15:01

The colorful postcard ritual is an act of defiance, Zev. And it's probably saying something like, Well, we're still here and we're not going anywhere. If this conversation moved you, do what Zev does and tell someone in the middle of chaos that there's still color and laughter and a reason to get up and create. If you enjoyed this episode, please post it on your social media and reach out to Zev because he may draw a postcard for you. Until next time, I'm Jennifer Weissman, and this is the Israeli Trailblazers Show.