Some Perspectives on Judessy:
"Odysseus, that lucky bastard, had to travel far and wide to meet and best his monsters. Leon, the hero of Shay Charka’s masterful and intense graphic novel, wasn’t so lucky: the monsters, wearing jackboots and swastikas, came to him, devouring his family and everything else he held dear. Gorgeous, profound, and tragically timely, Judessey is a reminder that Jews are forever called to rise up and resist their pursuers.... This epic, hallelujah, places Charka where he belongs, in the front row of comics greats, an artist whose ideas are as stirring as his artwork is transcendent." - Liel Leibovitz
"Shay Charka is an illustrator for various renowned Hebrew authors and a wide range of publishing houses. He publishes weekly cartoons, caricatures, and illustrations in Makor Rishon, an Israeli magazine, and has published twenty comics books and graphic novels—two of which have been translated into English and published abroad. Charka’s comics albums are mainly inspired from Judaism and Jewish sources, as well as from daily life in Israel. He was the 2019 Animix Notable, an international animation, comics, and cartoon festival held in Israel.
Shay Charka also lectures on visual language to a variety of audiences at national and private institutions, museums, festivals, educational bodies, and cultural centers in Israel and abroad." - Post Hill Press
The Seventh Annual Levy Event is presented by the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University with the support of the Lawrence Levy and Pamela Lindholm-Levy Judaic Studies Programming Fund.