The youngest of four children, Holtz was born and spent his early childhood in Skierniewice, Poland, a small town near Warsaw.

[1] In 1935, prior to World War II, when Holtz was ten years old, his family moved to Jerusalem, Israel, where they settled in the Geula neighborhood near Meah Shearim.

[1] His beloved subject matter was painting scenes of Jewish life, his childhood memories when his mother took him shopping for the Sabbath to the markets of Meah Shearim, left a deep impression on him and influenced many of his works.

[6] His Israeli street scenes are said to combine "an affectionate recollection of the past with the brilliance of the color of modern Israel.

Examples of Holtz's work throughout the years include: Yerusalem Wedding (2010), depicting a Chuppa in Jerusalem on early evening, oil on canvas; The Funeral(1966), depicting five stoic Hasidim carrying a body on a bier over to a gravesite, with the people behind them crying, in charcoal on paper and oil on canvas; Rejoicing (1974), an image of religious men dancing, in felt pen and marker on paper; and the oil painting Shamash Learning in Shul (2003), a portrait of a pious Jew studying the Talmud inside a claustrophobic synagogue scene.

[7] Throughout the years Holtz created hundreds of works in many art mediums, including genre scenes, portraits, still lifes and landscape scenery.

[6] He was heavily influenced by the ancient staircases and alleyways of Jerusalem, with its modest religious population, which made a strong impression on him in his youth,[1] the streets of Tzfat,[5] and the works of Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer and Peter Bruegel,[6] as well as Jewish artists Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Leonid Pasternak and Isidor Kaufmann had a strong influence on him.

For over half a century of painting the subject matter he cherished, he revealed in his Judaic art the modesty, spirit and simplicity of the religious life that so intrigued him on the Jerusalem streets since his childhood.