-
On the Ideological and Practical Significance of Siddur Inner Cover Illustrations in Modern Eretz Israel IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-07-31 Reuven Gafni
This study focuses on one visual component within the envelope of the siddur (the Jewish prayer book) that has yet to receive scholarly attention: the artistic illustration appearing on its inner cover (for the siddur in Hebrew, on the first left page). Specifically, it examines the inner cover illustration of six modern Ashkenazi prayer books from Eretz Israel, delving into the marketing and ideological
-
What Matisse and Picasso Owed to Jewish Collectors and Dealers IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Larry Silver
While the prominence in twentieth-century painting of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso remains unquestioned, neither of these great artists could have emerged in their shared Parisian art world without the direct support of Jewish collectors and dealers. Foremost among the Jewish collectors of their earlier works were Americans living in Paris, especially the Steins: Leo, Gertrude, and Michael and Sarah
-
Not by Words Alone: Early Holocaust Graphic Narratives as a “Minor Art” IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-12-09 Rachel E. Perry
Immediately after the Holocaust, scores of Jewish survivors created graphic narratives, in word and image, about their individual and collective wartime experiences under Nazi oppression. This essay will make a case for these early postwar works as a “minor art.” “Minor” captures the material characteristics of this low-capital, low-circulation printed matter: slight in weight, small in size, modest
-
Wrestling with the Diaspora’s Angels: A Note on Fra Angelico’s Legacy in Hungarian-Israeli Art IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-12-09 Mariann Farkas
While numerous scholars have analyzed the influence of immigration on Jewish visual culture, few have focused on the Hungarian-Israeli scene. This article seeks to resolve some of the lacunae surrounding expressions of Hungarian immigrant experiences in Israeli art by analyzing the Annunciation theme in Hedi Tarjan’s series Homage to Fra Angelico, which was painted in the 1980s and the 2000s. A woman
-
The Intentional Alteration of Jewish Manuscripts and the Houston Mahzor IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Diane Wolfthal, Elisabeth Hollender
Books are living forms that must be understood not simply as they were at the moment and place of their creation, but also as they changed through time and space. This article focuses on a little-known medieval mahzor from the Rhineland, currently in Houston, which has been published in only three catalogue entries. It begins by introducing the manuscript and then goes on to focus on what is perhaps
-
Ritual Chairs of Circumcision Ceremonies: Reassessing Meaning through Materiality IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Chana Shacham-Rosby
This essay will showcase a process of contextualizing a Jewish ritual object through synthesizing a range of sources. The object at the center of this research is the chair in the context of the circumcision ceremony in medieval Ashkenaz and the early modern Ashkenazi diaspora. The two ceremonial chairs are designated, respectively, for the ba′al brit, who holds the infant, and Elijah the Prophet,
-
The Siren’s Seed IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-23 Eva Frojmovic
In two liturgical Pentateuchs from Northern Europe from around 1300, images of sirens appear unexpectedly and in ways that vary from common siren iconography. Perhaps these human–animal hybrids, or mixta, in their elusive sexuality and transgressive boundary-crossing articulate Jewish cultural concerns with gender politics. Feminist bestiary studies and feminist studies of vocality (the siren’s song)
-
Between Imagination and Exegesis: The Masorah Figurata Illustrations of the Two Menorot in Vatican ebr. 14 IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-10 Hanna Liss
This article will deal with two folios from Ms. Vatican ebr. 14, a Pentateuch (with haftarot and megillot) written by Elijah ben Berekhiah ha-Nakdan in 1239. Both folios display a seven-branched candelabrum (menorah). The one on folio 104r is depicted lying on its side, while the one on folio 155v is standing upright. Both lampstands consist of masoretic material in micrographic script. The article
-
The Jews’ Hat in Medieval Ashkenaz: Formal Attire for Everyday Men? IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-06 Andreas Lehnertz, Hannah Teddy Schachter
This article nuances the dominant historiographical narrative of the Jews’ hat as an allegedly pejorative iconographic marker of Jewish men in medieval Ashkenaz. Considering the perceptions and functions of the Jews’ hat, this article will offer new conclusions regarding if, when, and by whom it was worn. Drawing from a variety of sources in Hebrew, Latin, and vernacular languages, and on visual sources
-
“Perhaps The Oldest Piece of Ecclesiastical Furniture in this Country”: The Construction and Destruction of Solomon Schechter’s Cairo Genizah Torah Ark IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-12-20 David Selis
In 1897, Solomon Schechter brought a hoard of Hebrew manuscripts, now known collectively as the Cairo Genizah, to England from Cairo. Along with these manuscripts were several wooden Hebrew inscription fragments from Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue. When Schechter left Cambridge to assume the presidency of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, these fragments were brought to New York where they were
-
Picturing the Tetragrammaton: Moses Cordovero’s Pardes Rimonim from Manuscript to Digital Form IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-12-20 Eugene D. Matanky
This article explores the transformation of the divine word/image—the graphic representation of the Tetragrammaton—that originated in the work of Joseph Hamadan, a thirteenth-century kabbalist, and was incorporated into the work of Moses Cordovero, a sixteenth-century kabbalist. The issue of the divine word/image is an intersection of various theological positions found in kabbalistic thought concerning
-
Contemporary Jewish Artists Encounter Samaritan Culture, 2020–2022: Artists’ Perspectives IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-10-27 Richard McBee
This article describes the process by which eight contemporary Jewish artists – Andi Arnovitz, Judith Joseph, Richard McBee, Mark Podwal, Archie Rand, Joel Silverstein, Hillel Smith, and Yona Verwer – encountered Samaritan culture and created artworks that bridge their new learning about the Samaritans and their own Jewish identities. Their works were integrated into The Samaritans: A Biblical People
-
The Kusama Retrospective and the Future of The Tel Aviv Museum of Art IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-10-08 Maya Balakirsky Katz
Following two years of heavy COVID restrictions, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art opened the “first-ever retrospective in Israel” of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Beyond the pioneering artist that is the subject of the retrospective and what it says about the Israeli public that is drawn to her work, the exhibition also invites analysis into the restaging of art exhibitions originating in another country
-
Oral Transmission, Ekphrasis, and Technical Drawings: On the Formation of Mishnah Middot IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-10-01 Joshua Skarf
Scholars have often used the Mishnaic tractate Middot, “Measurements,” as the basis for recreating technical drawings of the Jerusalem Temple. Middot was never intended, however, to be used this way. Buildings in antiquity were largely erected without the use of technical drawings, and construction usually began without a fully resolved design. Furthermore, the very idea of copying a building was different
-
Catalan Maps and Jewish Books: The Intellectual Profile of Elisha ben Abraham Cresques (1325–1387), written by Katrin Kogman-Appel IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-04-01 Mordechay Lewy
-
Turks, Jews, and Other Germans in Contemporary Art, written by Peter Chametzky IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2022-03-03 Maud Lavin
-
Jewish Crucifixions, Christian Tragedy: The White Crucifixion as a Site for Tragic Theology after the Holocaust IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2021-10-11 Ranana Dine
In 2013, Pope Francis, to the surprise of many, singled out Marc Chagall’s 1938 painting the White Crucifixion as one of his favorites. However, despite being a depiction of a Jewish Jesus surrounded by antisemitic violence, the White Crucifixion has inspired a fair amount of serious Christian theological engagement, even before the Pope’s announcement. The painting allows viewers to imagine a crucifixion
-
Inserting Hersh Fenster’s Undzere Farpainikte Kinstler into Art History IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2021-09-17 Rachel E. Perry
In 1951, Hersh Fenster published Undzere farpainikte kinstler (Our Martyred Artists), a 300-page yizkor book in Yiddish that commemorated 84 Jewish artists who had worked in France in the interwar period and perished in the Holocaust. Unlike most memorial books, which are collaborative group endeavors sponsored by landsmannschaften groups or communal organizations, this volume was researched, written
-
The Object of Zionism: The Architecture of Israel, written by Zvi Efrat IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2021-10-19 Michael Turner
-
Metaphor, Dream, and the Parabolic Bridging of Difference: A Kabbalistic Aesthetic IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Elliot R. Wolfson
-
Louis XIII, Richard I, and the Duchess of Devonshire: Nineteenth-Century Jews in Fancy Dress Costume IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 Michele Klein
In the nineteenth century, fancy dress activities and their material record formed part of the mise-en-scène of the Jewish elite’s self-fashioning. Family photographs and press reports of Jews in costume cast new light on the visualization of wealthy Jews. These Jews actively participated in the fancy dress culture of the elites, a popular form of cultural expression that was deemed a powerful way
-
¿Dónde están los Judíos en la “Vida Americana?”: Art, Politics, and Identity on Exhibit IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-12-02 Jeffrey Shandler
Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945, an exhibition that opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in February, 2020, proposed to remake art history by demonstrating the profound impact Mexican painters had on their counterparts in the United States, inspiring American artists “to use their art to protest economic, social, and racial injustices.” An unexamined part of
-
Masterpieces and Curiosities: The Benguiat Collection, The Jewish Museum IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-26 Yitzchak Schwartz
-
The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-26 Shulamit Laderman
-
Synagogues in Hungary 1782–1918 Genealogy, Typology and Architectural Significance, written by Rudolf Klein IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-26 Samuel D. Gruber
-
Leviathan: The Metamorphosis of a Medieval Image IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-26 Boris Khaimovich
The image of Leviathan held a special fascination for artists who decorated wooden synagogues and illustrated manuscripts from the eighteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe. They usually depicted this biblical and Talmudic creature as a giant fish coiled round in a circle. A leviathan of the same shape appears at first in Jewish manuscripts produced in Germany
-
Diagramming Sabbateanism IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-25 J. H. Chajes
Scholars have only recently started to study ilanot (lit., “trees”), the cosmographic genre constituted by the wedding of kabbalistic diagrams—the trees of the metonymic name—and large parchment sheets. Differences of kabbalistic opinion naturally found expression in these “maps of God.” The Sabbatean messianic movement of the 1660s and its prolonged and impactful afterlife produced, among other things
-
Out of the Blue, the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-19 Gadi Sagiv
-
The Menorah: Evolving into the Most Important Jewish Symbol, written by Rachel Hachlili IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-18 Steven Fine
-
The Artist’s Destiny in Jewish Collective Memory: From Traditional Society to the Avant-Garde and Modernism IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-18 Sergey R. Kravtsov
The destiny of an architect, painter, or carver working on the construction and decoration of an Eastern-European synagogue is a popular subject in Jewish folklore and literature. These stories are related to the international tale “The Giant as a Master Builder” (classified as АТ 1099), which Jewish storytellers adapted to their audiences. This paper discusses narratives circulated in traditional
-
Introductory Remarks on Georg Langer’s “On the Function of the Jewish Doorpost Scroll” from 1928 IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-18 Batsheva Goldman-Ida
Batsheva Goldman-Ida, art historian and museum curator, introduces the article by Jiří Mordechai Georgo Langer (1894, Prague–1943, Tel Aviv): “On the Function of the Jewish Doorpost Scroll,” presented for the first time in English translation, and originally written for the Freud journal Imago in 1928. Langer, a Hebrew poet and teacher of Jewish studies was a friend of Franz Kafka. Langer joined the
-
Displaying Mysticism: Another Look at Exhibition Design IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Judy Jaffe-Schagen
-
Faces of God: The Ilan of Rabbi Sasson ben Mordechai Shandukh IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Eliezer Baumgarten
Rabbi Sasson ben Mordechai Shandukh was one of the leaders of the renewed Jewish community in Baghdad in the second half of the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Among the literary heritage left by Rabbi Sasson Shandukh, which includes moral literature, liturgical poems, halakhic literature and prominent Kabbalistic literature, are the unique Kabbalistic ilanot (rotuli
-
From Angel to the Shekhina: The Influence of Kabbalah on the Late Work of R. B. Kitaj IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Mirjam Knotter
After a lifelong career as a central figure in the London art scene, the American-Jewish artist R. B. Kitaj (1932–2007) left England in 1997 for Los Angeles to be “in exile,” as he named it, following a series of tragic events that he believed had caused the sudden death of his beloved wife and muse, artist Sandra Fisher (1947–1994). In Los Angeles, he continued the mission he had assigned himself
-
Jonathan Leaman: In Conversation IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Batsheva Goldman-Ida
Jonathan Leaman (b. 1954, London) is a British painter who is represented in the Tate Collection. This article, the result of 15 years of his correspondence with art historian and museum curator Batsheva Goldman-Ida, focuses on a group of works by the artist from the last two decades. Leaman’s familiarity with major Kabbalah scholarship, combined with his wide knowledge of poetry and philosophy, enable
-
Picture and Story: On the Use of Visual Imagery in the Writing of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Zvi Mark
Rabbi Nahman’s philosophical and literary work has generated great interest among artists in various fields over the course of the last few decades, an interest of such degree and power that it has no equal in the traditional Jewish world. In this article, I will discuss one element of Rabbi Nahman’s spiritual world that may explain to some degree the attraction of his work to painters and other artists
-
Mapping Transformative Spaces: Maps as a Tool for Understanding Rites of Passage in Flying Couch and How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-07-16 Matt Reingold
Maps feature prominently in Amy Kurzweil’s graphic novel Flying Couch and Sarah Glidden’s graphic novel How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. Even though their texts address different topics, the two Jewish graphic novels make use of maps in similar ways. Both authors use maps to explore their own complex relationships with seminal topics in contemporary Jewish life. For Kurzweil, maps become
-
Secularizing the Sacred: Aspects of Israeli Visual Culture, written by Alec Mishory IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-06-24 Na’ama Sheffi
-
Historical Atlas of Hasidism, written by Marcin Wodziński IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2020-04-17 Maya Balakirsky Katz
-
The Fear of Religionization of Israeli Cultural Worlds: Response to Horit Herman Peled and Yoav Peled IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 David Sperber
-
Ardon: A Comprehensive Catalogue, written by Dalia Ardon Ish-Shalom IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Ziva Amishai-Maisels
-
In the Shadow of Empires—Synagogue Architecture in East Central Europe, written by Sergey R. Kravtsov IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Rudolf Klein
-
Antique Roman Mappòt: The Precious Textile Archive of the Jewish Museum of Rome, edited by Olga Melasecchi, Amedeo Spagnoletto, and Doretta Davanzo Poli IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Simona Di Nepi
-
Response to David Sperber’s Review of The Religionization of Israeli Society (Routledge, 2019) IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Horit Herman Peled,Yoav Peled
-
-
The Religionization of Israeli Society, written by Yoav Peled and Horit Herman Peled IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 David Sperber
-
The Sarajevo Haggadah: History and Art, edited by Mirsad Sijarić IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Katrin Kogman-Appel
-
The Jewish Bible: A Material History, written by David Stern IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Yoel Finkelman
-
Before Wild Things: Maurice Sendak and the Postwar Jewish American Child as Queer Insider-Outsider IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Golan Moskowitz
This article analyzes the late Maurice Sendak’s (1928–2012) entry into the field of children’s picture books in the midtwentieth century and his contribution to the affective shift in children’s literature. It examines Sendak’s complex social position and artistic development in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as lesser-known illustrations by Sendak, including collaborations with Ruth Krauss and with
-
Double Tendance: The Photographic Message in the Egyptian Jewish Youth Magazine L’Illustration Juive, 1929–1931 IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 David Guedj
The present article investigates the visual elements of the illustrated youth quarterly L’Illustration Juive, which was published in Alexandria between 1929 and 1931 in French and Hebrew. The analysis sets out to expose the ideologies and worldviews informing the publication’s editorial board, as well as the conscious or unconscious message that the quarterly tried to communicate to its young readership
-
How to Do Things with Things: Craft at the Edge of Buber’s Philosophical Anthropology IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Dustin Atlas
This article offers an alternative reading of Martin Buber (1878–1956), one guided by his writings on craft and artistic creation. Rather than view Buber as a philosopher of dialogue, it views him as a philosopher of relationships, including relationships to nonhuman things. His writings on craft and artistic creation are taken to exemplify these nonhuman relationships. After sketching out the general
-
Images of Wild Flowers in Israeli Visual Culture: Representations of a Troubled Land IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld
This article examines images of wild flowers in Israeli visual culture from the period of pre-state Israel until the present day. These images have served as “cultural objects” that have helped construct a national identity. They have appeared in Hebrew publications, stamps, banknotes, and artworks. Arguing that the choice of botanical art is a political statement, this article shows the complex attitudes
-
Jewish Childhood Transformed: Through the Looking Glass of Art and Visual Representation in Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Russia IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Eugeny Kotlyar
The present article studies the thematic ways in which Jewish childhood was represented in Russian Jewish art and visual media from the 1850s to the 1930s. During this period, Russian Jewry was undergoing important transformations. It saw the establishment of a traditional model of religious life, a subsequent process of modernization and acculturation, and finally the education of the “New Jew” as
-
The Liberation of G-D: Helène Aylon’s Jewish Feminist Art IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 David Sperber
Helène Aylon (b. 1931) is among the first generation of feminist artists who identified and challenged traditional patriarchal and misogynist readings of ancient religious texts. This article analyzes the discourse and examines the reception of Aylon’s work The Liberation of G-d (1990–1996) within the Jewish art world and the American Conservative Jewish community, and her contribution to these two
-
The Play’s the Thing: Toys in Ancient Jewish Society—Visualizing through the Words of the Rabbis IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Joshua Schwartz
Everyone plays and that, of course, includes children. In an ideal world, there would be literary traditions, archaeological remains and artistic renditions, which would enable the reconstruction of toys. Unfortunately, the situation does not exist for ancient Jewish society. For the most part, there are depictions in rabbinic literature and it is those toy traditions which I examine. The study begins
-
A Robe of Many Colors: Children and their Clothing in Early Modern Ashkenaz IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Tali Berner
This article discusses the clothing of Jewish children and adolescents in Western and Central Europe in the early modern period. Looking at egodocuments, sumptuary laws, visual representations, moral books, halakhic literature and apprenticeship contracts, it gives a first overview of children’s dress and involvement in the textile industry. The article explore the forces that shaped children’s garments—parental
-
Theater for Kindergarten Children in the Yishuv: Toward the Formation of an Eretz-Israeli Childhood IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Shelly Zer-Zion
“The Children’s Theatre by the Kindergarten Teachers Center,” that was founded in 1928, was the first Hebrew repertory theatre exclusively addressing the audience of children attending kindergarten and the first grades of elementary school. This article explores how The Children’s Theater conveyed a set of performative practices that consolidated a habitus of Eretz-Israeli childhood. The theater articulated
-
Walter Benjamin at the City Library of Berlin: The New Library as Incident Room IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Jonathan Bordo
This article pairs Bibliothek, a memorial in Berlin against the Nazi book-burning of May 10, 1933, with the library in Wim Wenders’ film Der Himmel über Berlin (1987) as sites to reflect on loss with the disappearance of material books from the library and the conversion of libraries into information centers in the era of the internet and digital reproduction. It explores loss by taking up arguments
-
Making a Home in Poland: Photographic Education and Practices in the Landkentnish Movement IMAGES (IF 0.2) Pub Date : 2019-10-24 Gil Pasternak, Marta Ziętkiewicz
This article studies the photographic methods that the Poland-based Landkentnish (Yiddish for “knowing the land”) movement employed in the interwar period to promote Jewish culture and Poland as a home for the Jewish people. The movement wished to increase the exposure of Polish Jews to Poland’s diverse landscapes in order to strengthen their connection to the Polish land. It also aspired to create
-