In the heart of Beit Shemesh, where ancient traditions meet modern living, Naama Goldberg sits at her computer, her fingers dancing across the keyboard. But she's not writing code anymore. Instead, she's transforming photographs of revered rabbis into striking contemporary artworks that are reshaping Jewish homes across the globe.
Goldberg, a former web developer with a background in computer science and mathematics, never saw herself as an artist. Growing up in a creative Johannesburg household, she was surrounded by artistic expression but always felt more at home with numbers and algorithms. "I was the mathematician, the scientist," she recalls. "While my sister painted comic murals on the garage walls, I excelled at computer science and math."
Yet today, her company, Ben Zion Fine Arts, is at the forefront of a revolution in Jewish home decor. Their laser-cut stainless steel portraits of gedolim (great Torah scholars) adorn offices and homes across four continents, bridging the gap between tradition and contemporary design.
The journey from tech to art began with a blank wall and a pre-Sukkot inspiration. What started as a simple Photoshop experiment with a photo of the Steipler Gaon has blossomed into a family enterprise. Goldberg's aeronautical engineer husband handles the technical production, while their children have become integral to the quality control process. "One of my sons excels at spotting mistakes," she says proudly, "so he's become our quality-control specialist."
