After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I looked at my ten-month-old daughter and pregnant wife and realized our only hope for the future lies in bringing more children into the world. Hoping to inspire, I hired a master sign painter to display a segment of Psalm 127 outside the Holland Tunnel.

As an observant Jew, I believe children represent optimism for the future and embody realized Goodness—the more who come into the world, the more light is revealed. Everyone has a mission in life, and for the last 15 years, mine was to beautify the streets of Jersey City. This is how I came to find a pathway to something greater than myself.

Green Villain mural project began in 2011 and had no affiliation with the Mayor’s Office. Buy Rite Liquors is one of over fifty sites managed by my organization and is the single most viewed mural site in the history of the public art. Since the first piece was painted in 2013, an estimated 16 million drivers pass this site every year. Over the past 12 years, the total estimate is upwards of 190 million—not including social media impressions. Neither Wynwood nor Philadelphia can claim anything in comparison to what Jersey City can.

Acquiring the wall was David versus Goliath: a lone entrepreneur struck the eye of a taxpayer-funded mural program, claiming the world’s prime public art site. Lacking corporate sponsors, community roundtables, the mayor’s seal, or world-famous artists, I simply collaborated with passionate local graffiti writers—now etched in the annals of history.

“Greetings From” by Victor Fung was sprawled across a 30’ x 30’ panel and is the most iconic landmark Jersey City never paid for. Each letter was filled with historic iconography—Loew’s Theatre, BergenArches, Colgate Clock and even a KAWS balloon. Artists that were featured over the past decade include Mecro, Ntel, Mast, Curve, Zimer, 4Sakn, Pawn, Goomba, Paws Nychos, Mess, Mustart, Tones, Jaek and more.

Though, like the Demolition Exhibition and 5-Pointz, art is not meant to live forever. Over the next few years Buy Rite will be redeveloped and the murals will fade from our memory like a dream.

“Children are the heritage of the Lord. Happy is the man that fills his quiver. ”

I designed the “Quiver Mural” that replaced a faded “Greetings From” to inspire the millions of people that will pass it in the remaining years. It sits next to the Light Over Darkness mural which was painted in December 2019 to honor the fallen in the antisemitic attack in Greenville.

As Marshall McLuhan would say,“…the medium is the message. ”The impermanence of these panels exemplify that life is not guaranteed. Neither is joy, success, fame, or love. In order to create something that lasts, it must be based around something greater than ourselves, and I believe that the ultimate way to achieve this is to have children.

Through our children we pass on something that was passed on to us, our heritage—morality, justice, curiosity, culture, debate, charity, love of our country and of our neighbor to name a few. This is our legacy: something passed from one generation to the next.

Want to be a part of history? Head down to 575 Manilla Ave. and take some photos before it is too late!