Ars Judaica is an annual publication of the Department of Jewish
Art at Bar-Ilan University. It showcases the Jewish contribution to
the visual arts and architecture from antiquity to the present from
a variety of perspectives, including history, iconography,
semiotics, psychology, sociology, and folklore. As such it is a
valuable resource for art historians, collectors, curators, and all
those interested in the visual arts. The study of Jewish art
frequently raises questions relating to Jewish survival and Jewish
identity. These issues have always been of relevance throughout the
Jewish diaspora, and as is evident from the articles in this volume
they continue to concern Jewish artists to this day. The opening
article, 'Illuminations of Kol Nidrei in Two Ashkenazi Mahzorim' by
Sara Offenberg, deals with the hidden meanings expressed by groups
of animals depicted in two medieval Ashkenazi prayer books for the
Day of Atonement. By using allegorical animals in this way the Jews
of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries could safely express
their fear of the hostile Christian society in which they lived, as
well as their trust in God and belief in redemption. A surprising
link between the Middle Ages and modern times is made by Rachel
Singer's article, 'Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are: An
Exploration of the Personal and the Collective'. Published in 1963,
this classic children's book, written and illustrated by the son of
a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, is far removed, both
chronologically and geographically, from the Ashkenazi Middle Ages.
In her study, however, Singer prises out hidden sources of
antisemitic perceptions rooted in medieval Christian Europe. This
leads us to the volume's third article, 'The Return of the
Wandering Jew(s) in Samuel Hirszenberg's Art' by Richard I. Cohen
and Mirjam Rajner. The motif of the wandering Jew, a negative and
frightening figure, is rooted in the late Middle Ages: it made its
first appearance in Christian art, in printed books which
disseminated the Christian legend all over Europe. In the
nineteenth century, Jewish artists engaging with the image of the
wandering Jew endowed it with new interpretations and
presentations. One of these is revealed by the authors as they
focus on the painting The Wandering Jew, created in 1899 by the
Polish Jewish artist Samuel Hirszenberg. As is well known,
emancipation and the Jewish national awakening in late
nineteenth-century Europe were accompanied by diverse artistic
activities. These included the establishment of Jewish societies
promoting Jewish art and artists, exhibitions, documentation, and
research. Among the most impressive efforts were the activities of
Jewish artists in interwar Poland, recorded in contemporary local
newspapers and periodicals. As these were published in Polish and
Yiddish they weren't accessible to the English-speaking reader,
something that is now rectified by Renata Piatkowska in 'A Sense of
Togetherness: The Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Fine
Arts in Warsaw (1923-1939)'. Based on primary sources, the article
introduces us to the flourishing artistic life which was cruelly
destroyed in the Holocaust. Another result of Jewish national
awakening, in this case in the medium of photography, is presented
in 'Modernity as Anti-Nostalgia: The Photographic Books of Tim
Gidal and Moshe Vorobeichic and the Eastern European Shtetl', by
Rose-Carol Washton Long. This article examines how Zionist ideas
led two assimilated German-trained photographers to develop variant
thematic and stylistic portrayals of eastern European shtetls in
their photobooks, published in 1931 and 1932. Their volumes are
neither romantic nor nostalgic, but instead convey a vibrant vision
of modernity. While the first five articles discuss issues of
identity encountered by Jewish individuals or groups, the next
contribution focuses on a 'Jewish identity' that was imposed by a
colonial administration. Dominique Jarrasse's 'Orientalism,
Colonialism, and Jewish Identity in the Synagogues of North Africa
under French Domination' fills the gaps in our knowledge of
synagogue architecture in Tunisia and Algiers in the modern era in
general, and about colonial Orientalism in particular. Covert
Jewish identity is revealed by Milly Heyd in 'Hans Richter:
Universalism vis-a-vis Particularism'. This is the third part of
her study of the place of the hidden Jew in the Dada avant-garde,
one part of which is published in volume 1 of Ars Judaica. The
focus in the present piece is on Hans Richter's art in the context
of Man Ray, Tristan Tzara, and others who were born to Jewish
families but opted for universalism rather than particularism in
their art. The Special Item in this year's volume is devoted to a
painting by Moritz Oppenheim that was long thought to be lost. 'Of
Provenance and Providence: On the Reappearance of David Playing the
Harp for Saul by Moritz Oppenheim', by Susan Nashman Fraiman,
raises some new and interesting questions about Oppenheim's early
work and patrons. The study of this painting reveals a conscious
effort to incorporate Jewish source material into his work, an
important aspect of his corpus which has previously been neglected.
Volumes of Ars Judaica are distributed by the Littman Library of
Jewish Civilization throughout the world, except Israel. Orders and
enquiries from Israeli customers should be directed to: Ars
Judaica, Department of Jewish Art, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan
52900, Telephone 03 5318413; Fax 03 6359241; Email
[
[email protected]]
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