Exhibition: Newly Acquired Chagall Apocalypse Painting on View in London

Marc Chagall, Apocalypse in Lilac: Capriccio (1945)

Exhibition: Newly Acquired Chagall Apocalypse Painting on View in London

by Samuel D. Gruber
 

Many of you have probably already read that the Ben Uri Gallery: London Jewish Museum of Art has acquired an important work by Marc Chagall – one of a series of depictions of Crucified Jewish Jesus – an image he favored in the late 1930s and early 1940s as he watched German Nazis and German, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Bylorussian and Ukrainian Christians participate – actively or as passive bystanders – in the murder of millions of Jews. The painting was acquired through the sharp and adroit acquisition policy of my friend David Glasser, Chairman of the Museum, which was founded in 2001 and has since then built an impressive collection and staged important exhibitions – though the institution is still looking for a permanent home.  

The painting is on view until January 31st at Osborne Samuel, 23 Bruton Street, London W1 (Opening hours: Monday – Friday, 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-2pm, Sunday, 12-4pm). The new acquisition is a gouache (a heavy dense watercolor) made by Chagall in 1945, who kept it his private collection. It was first sold in 1985, two years after the painter’s death. It is titled in pencil in Russian, “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio." You can read more about the acquisition in an article from the New York Times. 

Despite the title’s use of the term Capriccio, the work is remarkable for its depiction of anger – much more pronounced here than in Chagall’s earlier crucifixion works which are more infused with helpless pathos than any other emotion. Here Jesus is identified as Jewish not only because he wears a tallit (prayer shawl) but also, as in Yellow Crucifixion of 1943, with tefillin (phylacteries). In the Yellow Crucifixion, which is linked to the sinking of the Struma, this Jewish Jesus is paired with an image of the Torah scroll.

In the “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio” Jesus’s facial expression is similar to that of the Jewish Jesus in the large painting Resurrection, which Chagall began in 1937, but continued to work on through 1947. In 1944, the year before the gouache, Chagall painted The Crucified, but in that work there is no Jesus, only village Jews who have been nailed to crosses placed along a shtetl street. This is a variation on Chagall’s 1941 painting The Martyr, set in a very similar scene. Here, however, in the foreground is a Jesus-like figure, not crucified, but bound to an upright post. He is a young man, wearing a tallit-like covering, with tefillin-like strips on his arms, and the cap of Jewish worker. At his feet is a grieving woman, presumably a conflation of a Jewish mother of the shtetl, the traditional grieving Mary at the cross, and a more general allegorical representation of grief. The 1944 painting is a reaction to the news, known at this time, of the “liquidation” of the Ghettos, the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, and the destruction of Jewish Vitebsk – Chagall's home town, which he had depicted so lovingly in previous decade.

The theme of Jewish Jesus in Chagall’s art and in the work of other artists since the 19th century has been explored by several art and cultural historians. The best and most thorough treatments are by Ziva Amishai-Maisels in her classic work Depiction and Interpretation: The Influence of the Holocaust on the Visual Arts, especially Part II, chapter 3, “ The Crucified Jew,” pp 178 197. The topic is further explored in Amishai-Maisels article “The Jewish Jesus” in Journal of Jewish Art 9 (1982): 84–104. Prof. Amishai-Maisels has advised the Ben-Uri on the current exhibition.

Exhibition: Romania Synagogue Photos in NYC January 6-9

Exhibition: Romania Synagogue Photos in NYC January 6-9

I am happy to post the following to announce a showing of Christian Binder's Romania Synagogue photos in New York next month. Contributors who would like to see this work continued should contact me. ISJM has put together a proposal to allow Christian and Julie to keep working on this project...modest funding is needed.

-- Sam

Photo-Documentary Exhibition: "Synagogues of Southern Transylvania"
Photography: Christian Binder
Curator: Julie Dawson

Congress for Jewish Culture, 25 East 21st Street, ground floor
January 6 - 9, hours 11:00 - 4: 00 pm

Opening night January 6: Doors open at 6:00 pm, introduction and Carpathian klezmer music with Jake Schulmann-Ment and Benjy Fox-Rosen at 7:00 pm

In the wake of the Holocaust and subsequent mass migration of the vast majority of Romania's Jewish population, countless synagogues fell into various stages of disrepair and decay. This photo exhibition aims to capture the transitional stage in which Romania now finds itself. With the entrance of foreign investors and NGOs, some synagogues are being restored, turned into cultural centers or finding alternative uses. Others remain abandoned, assuming a central location in the town's center and representing an evocative, stubborn reminder of the recent and troubled past.

The questions are numerous - what will become of these buildings now that they can be used again? Will their respective towns take responsibility for their upkeep? How can they be integrated into a long-term plan for urban or rural renewal? And how can the countless still decrepit synagogues, many of significant historical or architectural value, be incorporated into a systematic and far-reaching plan to commemorate and celebrate a culture which used to play a considerable role in Romania's vibrant multi-cultural existence?

England: Synagogue Textile Exhibit at London's Bevis Marks Synagogue

England: Synagogue Textile Exhibit at London's Bevis Marks Synagogue

The Friends of the Jewish Museum of London has opened “Hidden Treasures- Sacred Textiles,” an exhibition of rare textiles from the collections of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation (Bevis Marks Synagogue) and the Montefiore Endowment, at the Bevis Marks Synagogue. Bevis Marks, built in 1701, is the oldest extant synagogue building in the British Isles.

Some of the Bevis Marks Torah mantles have been in the possession of the Congregation for three centuries.

The exhibition shows off other textiles, many of which have been conserved for the first time in years. Funds were raised from private sources for conservation, and more remains to be done.

Exhibited textiles include mappot, used to cover the scroll during interludes between reading, and a gilded linen jacket believed to have worn by the Reverend David de Sola at his circumcision at the end of the 18th century. A Torah mantle donated to Ramsgate Synagogue in 1833 was made from the wedding dress of Judith, Lady Montefiore, wife of Sir Moses. The gift was apparently in gratitude to God for her marriage. The use of cast off but still valuable clothing for materials for synagogue textiles was common in the pre-modern era (The Jewish Museum in Rome, for example, has a Torah mantle made from a dress that once belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden.)

Another mantle bears the initials of Moses Lopez Pereira, the first Baron Aguilar, who grew up in a family descended from conversos (forced converts to Christianity) but who reverted to Judaism in Vienna in 1722. He came to London with his 14 children in 1757. A decorated tefillin bag has special interest For Bevis Marks curator, Maurice Bitton: it has been handed down through his family from 18th century Morocco. "Every boy in the Bitton family," he said, "has used it on his barmitzvah down the generations."

For more on the exhibition click here

The exhibition runs until 15 March 2009.
Hidden Treasures, Sacred Textiles is open until mid-March from 11 am to 1pm on weekdays, and 10.30 am to 12.30pm Sundays

Exhibit: Synagogues in Southern Transylvania (Romania) & Updates on Romanian Jewish Heritage Preservation Projects

Exhibit: Synagogues in Southern Transylvania (Romania) & Updates on Romanian Jewish Heritage Preservation Projects

by Samuel D. Gruber

Ruth Ellen Gruber reports that on the weekend of Aug. 22-23, the "Proetnica" interethnic festival in Sighisoara, Romania will feature a exhibit of photographs of synagogues in southern Transylvania, taken by Christian Binder. The exhibit will beheld in the synagogue in Sighisoara, at Str. Tache Ionescu 13.

According to the press release, the exhibit "attempts to capture the interesting transitional stage in which Romania now finds itself – with the entrance of outside, foreign investors and NGOs, some synagogues have been or are being restored and turned into cultural centres or finding other alternative uses. Others remain abandoned, often assuming a central location in the town's centre, an evocative, stubborn reminder of recent past – and of today's reluctance to address Romania's troubled relationship with this history. The questions are numerous – what will become of these buildings now that they can be used again? Will their respective towns take responsibility for their upkeep, how can they be integrated into a long-term plan for urban or rural renewal? And how can the countless still decrepit synagogues, many of significant historical and architectural value, be incorporated into a systematic and far-reaching plan for commemorating and celebrating a culture formerly a vibrant part of Romania's multi-cultural existence?"

I have recently reviewed the status of Jewish monuments in a draft report for the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. As the report is further edited, I welcome more news about developments concerning Jewish Heritage sites in Romania, especially updates about on-going projects. I also especially refer readers to the latest edition of Ruth’s Jewish Heritage Travel – still the best guidebook to Jewish sites in Romania (and elsewhere).

From the report, here is information about recent care for synagogues:

“For the most part those Romanian synagogues that survived World War II, have subsequently survived in relatively good condition. Since 1990, however, several synagogues have been sold by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania since the buildings were no longer needed for worship, and they were too costly to maintain. Long years of use during the Ceacescu regime also were years of deferred maintenance. Now many of the synagogue buildings, especially those large structures built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cost tens of thousands of dollars annually to maintain, and millions of dollars to fully restore.

The Government of Romania and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FedRom) developed the “Action Plan for the Protection of the Jewish Heritage,” which was adopted by the Romanian Government. Through this initiative, there will be some government involvement in the protection and restoration of Jewish historic sites, particularly those that have been listed as national historic monuments. Several synagogues fall into this category.

In Cluj, the Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History, a department of Babes-Bolyai University, is housed in the former ‘Shas-Hevrah’ Synagogue. The building, erected in 1922, was in use as a synagogue into the early 1990s. It then closed, was used as a furniture warehouse, and now houses the Institute.

In a few cases in the 1990s, before the adoption of the “Action Plan,” synagogues were purchased and then demolished by the buyers. The synagogue in Reghin was bought and demolished, and in Bucharest, the "Vointa" Temple on Dacia Avenue was also demolished, even though it was a listed national monument.[1]

The most visible projects for synagogue restoration include the initiative of the Jewish Architectural Heritage Foundation, founded by American Adam Wapniak, which has joined with local organizations in Simleu Silvaniei in Transylvania to restore the former synagogue and to create a permanent museum and educational center.[2] The Northern Transylvania Holocaust Memorial Museum, housed in the former synagogue, was opened in July 2006.

In Arad, there a project has been presented by the Jewish Community of Arad and building conservator Matuz Andrei to restore the 1834 synagogue in that city. Other projects have been sponsored by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Oradea and Piatra Neamt.

According to FedRom, unused synagogues can be rented or sold under certain conditions, and approximately half the countries synagogue buildings are now in this category. An essential condition of all rental or sale agreements is that the new owner does not use the synagogue for worship by another religion. Icons, crosses or Bibles cannot be sold or manufactured in a Jewish place of cult. This policy sets Romania apart from the situation in other countries where synagogue buildings survived the Holocaust, but Jewish communities did not, and where former synagogues now serve as churches or mosques. According to FedRom, “a synagogue can be demolished, but a Christian church cannot be erected in its place."

"A synagogue is compatible with a furniture warehouse as long as it is not turned into a Christian church or into a brothel", says Aristide Streja, custodian at the Great Synagogue in Bucharest. "First of all, the Christians wouldn't accept it; second of all, the Jews wouldn't agree. Even with furniture inside the synagogue, the religious signs are kept. The Christians would take the place, but they would not keep it the way it is", claims Aristide Streja. Quoted in “Synagogues for Sale: The Romanian Jewish Community has found a new use for the places of prayer,”.

The Jewish Community also enters into contracts where the beneficiary does not pay rent, but is committed to renovate the building. This is the situation in Tarnaveni where the synagogue has been rented to the "Tarnava Mica" Cultural Foundation, and in Timisoara where since 2005 the synagogue has been rented to the Philharmonic Society. The Society has received some funding for the restoration of the building, including an initial grant from the World Monuments Fund to develop the restoration plan.

According to FedRom: “In Oradea, all three synagogues are rented: one serves as a carpentry workshop and the other two - as warehouses. In Bucharest, one synagogue out of six functions as a liquor and bread warehouse for the Jewish community. Some places of cult reach the final solution: they are sold or demolished.”

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