Tel Aviv
Israel
18 HaNatziv Israeli AIDS Memorial Quilt since 1 December 1990
unknown
Living in San Francisco, Danny Kent volunteered with the NAMES Project 1987-88 and got inspired by the moving experience volunteering at the first national display in Washington, DC in October 1987. Back in Israel a year later, the fledgling Israel AIDS Task Force asked him to set up a support group for a person with AIDS living in Akko. After Israel Schumacher died in the fall of 1989, his support group created the first panel, which is now part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the US.
Once in Tel Aviv, Danny set up the Israel NAMES Project – Proyect HaShemot within the Israel AIDS Task Force. The first national tour started on December 1, 1990, at Tel Aviv City Hall, consisting of local panels and several quilt blocks from the NAMES Project in the US. The tour continued to the Knesset, Haifa, Nazareth, Nazareth Illit, and culminated in Jerusalem.
In the years after, the Israeli Quilt received new panels from diverse groups of Israeli society ranging from a Jerusalem Quilting Bee, a quilting workshop in Tel Aviv’s Gay and Lesbian Community Center during the 1994 Gay Pride Month to a sixth grade elementary school class in Ramat HaSharon, including panels in Hebrew, Arabic, English and French.
In 1995, Proyect HaShemot became an independent non-profit organization, leading Israel’s first AIDS Walk in Tel-Aviv on World AIDS Day 1995 and continuing to raise funds for support services for people living with AIDS and their loved ones. Until the early 2000’s, Israeli quilt blocks had been displayed all over Israel and in Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including the 1996 national display in Washington, DC.
The Israeli AIDS Memorial Quilt consists of four blocks with eight panels each. Three blocks are in loan with Global Quilt in the USA, a special Jerusalem panel is on permanent display at a synagogue in Jerusalem.

Proyect HaShemot - Israel NAMES Project