ORIGINS OF ERETZ ISRAELI SCULPTURE 1906-1939 CATALOGUE BOOK ART BEZALEL JUDAICA

Description: ORIGINS OF ERETZ ISRAELI SCULPTURE 1906-1939 CATALOGUE The origins of sculpture in the Land of Israel- research and curator: Gideon Efrat. The exhibition catalog from the Herzliya Museum (1990). Includes photographs of many sculptures and short biographies of the early Israeli sculpture artists (among them Boris Schatz, Ze'ev Raban, Avraham Melnikov, Nachum Gutman and many others). Good condition, some age stains. 110 pages. Large format (12x9 inch). In English and in Hebrew. Winning bidder pays $18.00 postage international registered air mail Authenticity 100% Guaranteed Please have a look at my other listings. Good Luck! Boris Schatz (Hebrew: בוריס שץ; 23 December 1866 – 23 March 1932) was a Lithuanian Jewish artist and sculptor who settled in Israel. Schatz, who became known as the "father of Israeli art," founded the Bezalel School in Jerusalem. After Schatz died, part of his art collection, including a famous self portrait by Dutch Master Jozef Israëls, given to him by the artist, eventually became the nucleus of the Israel Museum.[1] Biography Boris Schatz with his wife, Olga, and children Boris Schatz was born in Varniai, in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Lithuania). His father, a teacher in a cheder (a religious school), sent him to study in a yeshiva in Vilnius, Lithuania.[2][3] In 1883, while at the yeshiva, he enrolled at the Vilnius School of Drawing, where he was a student until June 1885. In 1887, he met the Jewish sculptor Mark Antokolsky, who was visiting his parents. He showed Antokolski a small figurine of a Jew in a prayer shawl he had carved from black stone. Antokolsky secured a stipend for Schatz and encouraged him to apply for the St. Petersburg Academy of Art, but the plan to study there did not work out. Meanwhile, he began to teach drawing privately in Vilnius. In 1888, he moved to Warsaw and taught art in Jewish schools. His first sculpture “Hendel,” created in Warsaw, is an ode to the Jewish peddler.[4] In the summer of 1889, Schatz married Eugenia (Genia) Zhirmunsky.[5] In 1889, Schatz moved to Paris with wife to study painting at the Académie Cormon and sculpture under Antokolski. In 1890, they lived in a small French town, Banyuls-sur-Mer, for six months. In 1894 Schatz gained recognition for his sculpture "Mattathias the Maccabee" (present location unknown). At the end of 1895, Schatz moved to Sofia, Bulgaria, at the invitation of Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, where his daughter Angelika was born in 1897. Genia left him for a student of Schatz's, Andrey Nikolov, later a well-known Bulgarian sculptor, and took Angelika with her.[6] Boris Schatz, 1912 In March 1904, Schatz sailed to the United States to oversee the construction of the Bulgarian Pavilion at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He remained in the country for ten months, until the end of December 1904. Back in Sofia, he declared himself in love with 16-year-old Theodora (Dora) Gabe, later a renowned Bulgarian poet and children's author. In 1905, heartbroken when she did not return his affection, Schatz left for Berlin, where he stayed with the Zionist illustrator Ephraim Moses Lilien. Lilien introduced him to Franz Oppenheimer, a supporter of cooperative land settlement in Israel, and Otto Warburg, later president of the World Zionist Organization. Both were enthusiastic about his idea of establishing an art school in Jerusalem. The founding of Bezalel was officially proclaimed on October 8, 1905.[7] In 1911, Schatz married Olga Pevzner, a writer and art history teacher.[8] Their children Zahara Schatz (1916–1999) and Bezalel Schatz (1912–1978), nicknamed Lilik, were also artists.[9] Angelika became a painter, too, gaining recognition in the 1930s in France and Bulgaria. For many years, it was believed the relationship ended when Genia and Boris Schatz divorced. Letters discovered in the Central Zionist Archives reveal that they remained in touch.[10] Head of Schatz's daughter Angelika The 1955 Israel Prize for Art was awarded to Zahara in recognition of the whole Schatz family. While living on the shore of the Sea of Galilee during the First World War, Shatz wrote a futurist novel entitled The Rebuilt Jerusalem (Yerushalayim Ha-Benuya) in which Bezalel ben Uri, the Biblical architect of the Mishkan appears at the Bezalel School and takes Schatz on a tour of Israel in the year 2018.[11] Schatz died while on a fundraising tour in Denver, Colorado in 1932. Art career Copper relief of Jewish scribe, Boris Schatz (1912) In 1895, Schatz accepted an invitation from Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria to become the official court sculptor and to establish that country's Royal Academy of Art. In 1900, he received a gold medal for his statue, Bust of an Old Woman. Mattathias the Maccabee, Boris Schatz (1894) Three years later, in 1903, he met Theodor Herzl and became an ardent Zionist. At the Fifth Zionist Congress of 1905, he proposed creating a Jewish art school. In 1906 he founded an art center in Jerusalem, later named "Bezalel" after Bezalel Ben Uri, the biblical artisan who designed the Tabernacle and its ritual objects. In the following years, Schatz organized exhibitions of his students' work in Europe and the United States; they were the first international exhibitions of Jewish artists from Israel. Schatz, a fiery visionary, wrote in his will: "To my teachers and assistants at Bezalel I give my final thanks for their hard work in the name of the Bezalel ideal. Moreover, I beg forgiveness from you for the great precision that I sometimes demanded of you and that perhaps caused some resentment ... The trouble was that Bezalel was founded before its time, and the Zionists were not yet capable of understanding it." Schatz's will was publicized for the first time in 2005.[12] Bezalel art school Bezalel opened on Ethiopia Street in Jerusalem in 1906. The idea was to support the development of Jewish art and strengthen national pride by engaging in themes relevant to Jewish nationality.[13] The school's stated goals were "to train the people of Jerusalem in crafts, develop original Jewish art and support Jewish artists, and to find visual expression for the much yearned-for national and spiritual independence that seeks to create a synthesis between European artistic traditions and the Jewish design traditions of the East and West, and to integrate it with the local culture of the Land of Israel.” In 1908, the school moved to a permanent home on what became Shmuel Hanagid Street, which allowed more departments to be opened and the scope of activities expanded.[14] Of the three buildings Schatz purchased from a wealthy Palestinian Arab. one was his personal residence and the other two housed the art school and a national art museum. The school was established based on the Russian concept of an arts and crafts school and workshop. Bezalel's motto was "Art is the bud, craft is the fruit."[15] The school offered instruction in painting and sculpture alongside crafts such as carpet making, metalworking and woodcarving.[16] In the wake of financial difficulties, the school closed in 1929. Schatz died while fundraising on behalf of the school in the United States. His body was brought back to Jerusalem and buried on the Mount of Olives. Bezalel reopened in 1935 as the New Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. Bezalel art school, 1913 Awards and recognition 1898 silver medal in Science and Art, Sofia, Bulgaria 1900 gold medal for Bust of an Old Woman Ze’ev Raban (22 September 1890 – 19 January 1970), born Wolf Rawicki (Ravitzki), was a leading painter, decorative artist, and industrial designer of the Bezalel school style, and was one of the founders of the Israeli art world.[1] Biography Rabam with Bezalel torah ark Early life and education Wolf Rawicki (later Ze'ev Raban) was born in Łódź, Congress Poland, and began his studies there. He continued his studies in sculpture and architectural ornamentation at a number of European art academies. These included, in 1905,[2] the School of Applied Art in Munich at the height of the Jugendstil movement; in 1907,[2] the neo-classical studio of Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, then a center of Art Nouveau, under symbolist and idealist artists Victor Rousseau and Constant Montald; and in 1912 he left Europe, joining the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem (see below).[2] Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine Poster for the Society for the Promotion of Travel in the Holy Land. 1929 Lithograph Studies Under the influence of Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel School of Art, Raban moved to the Ottoman Palestine in 1912[2] during the wave of Zionist immigration known as the Second Aliyah. Here he continued his studies at the Bezalel school.[2] Teaching activity Two years after following Schatz's call, Raban joined the faculty of the Bezalel school.[2] Here he headed the Repoussé Department, taught anatomy and composition,[2] painting and sculpture.[3] Raban also became director of the Graphics Press and the Industrial Art Studio.[2] In 1914 his designs constituted the majority of the works created in the Bezalel workshop.[2] Raban taught at Bezalel until the school had to close down in 1929[2] due to financial difficulties. Tower of David exhibition In 1921, he participated in the historic art exhibition at the Tower of David in Jerusalem, the first exhibit of Hebrew artists in Palestine, which became the first of an annual series of such exhibits. Artistic style and range Style Raban is regarded as a leading member of the Bezalel school art style, in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist themes in a style influenced by the European Jugendstil (similar to Art Nouveau) and by traditional Persian and Syrian styles.[3] Like other European art nouveau artists of the period, such as Alphonse Mucha, Raban combined commercial commissions with uncommissioned paintings.[4] "Raban easily navigated a wealth of artistic sources and mediums, borrowing and combining ideas from East and West, fine arts and crafts from past and present. His works blended European neoclassicism, Symbolist art and Art Nouveau with oriental forms and techniques to form a distinctive visual lexicon. Versatile and productive, he lent this unique style to most artistic mediums, including the fine arts, illustration, sculpture, repousee, jewellery design, and ceramics."[5] Book illustration and graphic design Good examples of Raban's specific eclectic mix of European and Oriental styles are his illustrated editions of the Book of Ruth, Song of Songs, Book of Job, Book of Esther, and the Passover Hagadah.[3] Known are also his playing cards, where in the suit of leaves, the King is Ahasuerus, the Queen is Esther, and the Jack is Haman.[citation needed] He also designed a wide range of day-to-day objects, including commercial packaging for products such as Hanukkah candles and Jaffa oranges, bank notes, tourism posters, and insignia for Zionist institutions.[citation needed] "Bezalel ceramics" (tile murals) Raban collaborated with other artists to produce versions of his work as ceramic tile murals, of the so-called "Bezalel ceramics" type, a number of which can still be sees on buildings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, including the Bialik House. The 1925 Lederberg house, at the intersection of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street features a series of large ceramic murals designed by Raban. The four murals show a Jewish pioneer sowing and harvesting, a shepherd, and Jerusalem with a verse from Jeremiah 31:4, "Again I will rebuild thee and thous shalt be rebuilt."[6] Architectural decoration Raban designed the decorative elements of such important Jerusalem buildings as the King David Hotel and the Jerusalem YMCA.[4] Judaica Raban also designed a wide range of Jewish religious objects, including Hanukkah menorahs, temple windows, and Torah arks.[7] Temple Emanuel (Beaumont, Texas) has a notable set of six windows, each 16-feet high]. The windows were commissioned from Raban in 1922 by Rabbi Samuel Rosinger. Each window depicts an event in the life of one of the principal Hebrew prophets, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Moses, and Isaiah.[8] In 2015 one of his works received international attention. The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin visited at the White House with U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for the December 2015 Hannukah celebration.[9] Israel's First Lady Nechama Rivlin joined her husband in lighting a menorah made in Israel by Raban, and loaned by the North Carolina Museum of Art's Judaic Art Gallery. The White House noted: "The design elements of this menorah underscore a theme of coexistence, and its presence in the collection of the Judaic Art Gallery in North Carolina highlights the ties between American Jews and Israeli Jews and the vibrancy of Jewish life in the American South."[10] Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is Israel's national school of art, founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri (Hebrew: בְּצַלְאֵל בֶּן־אוּרִי), who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:30). The Bezalel School was founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. Theodor Herzl and the early Zionists believed in the creation of a national style of art blending classical Jewish/Middle Eastern and European traditions. The teachers of Bezalel developed a distinctive school of art, known as the Bezalel school, which portrayed Biblical and Zionist subjects in a style influenced by the European jugendstil (art nouveau) and traditional Persian and Syrian art. The artists blended "varied strands of surroundings, tradition and innovation," in paintings and craft objects that invokes "biblical themes, Islamic design and European traditions," in their effort to "carve out a distinctive style of Jewish art" for the new nation they intended to build in the ancient Jewish homeland. The Bezalel School produced decorative art objects in a wide range of media: silver, leather, wood, brass and fabric. While the artists and designers were Western-trained, the craftsmen were often members of the Yemenite Jewish community, which has a long tradition of working in precious metals. Silver and goldsmithing had been traditional Jewish occupations in Yemen. Yemenite immigrants were also frequent subjects of Bezalel school artists. Leading artists of the school include Meir Gur Aryeh, Ze'ev Raban, Shmuel Ben David, Ya'ackov Ben-Dov, Ze'ev Ben-Tzvi, Jacob Eisenberg, Jacob Pins, Jacob Steinhardt, and Hermann Struck In 1912, the school had only one female student, Marousia (Miriam) Nissenholtz, who used the pseudonym Chad Gadya.The school closed down in 1929 in the wake of economic difficulties, but reopened in 1935, attracting many teachers and students from Germany, many of them from the Bauhaus school shut down by the Nazis. Ze’ev Raban (1890-1970) was a leading painter, decorative artist, and industrial designer of the Bezalel school style, and was one of the founders of the Israeli art world.Raban was born Wolf Rawicki in Łódź, Congress Poland, and began his studies there. He continued his studies in sculpture and architectural ornamentation at a number of European art academies. These included the School of Applied Art in Munich at the height of the Jugendstil movement, the neo-classical studio of Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, then a center of Art Nouveau, under symbolist and idealist artists Victor Rosseau and Constant Montald.Under the influence of Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel Academy, Raban moved to the land of Israel in 1912 during the wave of immigration known as the Second Aliyah. He joined the faculty of the Bezalel school, and soon took on a central role there as a teacher of repoussé, painting, and sculpture. He also directed the academy's Graphics Press and the Industrial Art Studio. By 1914, most of the works produced in the school's workshops were of his design. He continued teaching until 1929.In 1921, he participated in the historic art exhibition at the Tower of David, the first exhibit of Hebrew artists in Palestine, which became the first of a yearly series of such exhibits. Raban is regarded as a leading member of the Bezalel school art style, in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist themes in a style influenced by the European jugendstil (similar to Art Nouveau) and by traditional Persian and Syrian styles. Exemplars of this style are Rabban's illustrated editions of the of Book of Ruth, Song of Songs, Book of Job, Book of Esther, and the Passover Hagadah.Like other European art nouveau artists of the period such as Alphonse Mucha Raban combined commercial commissions with uncommissioned paintings. Raban designed the decorative elements of such important Jerusalem buildings as the King David Hotel, the Jerusalem YMCA, and Bikkur-Cholim Hospital. He also designed a wide range of day-to-day objects, including playing cards (in the suit of leaves, the King is Ahasuerus, the Queen is Esther, and the Jack is Haman), commercial packaging for products such as Hanukkah candles and Jaffa oranges, bank notes, tourism posters, jewelry, and insignia for Zionist institutions."Raban easily navigated a wealth of artistic sources and mediums, borrowing and combining ideas from East and West, fine arts and crafts from past and present. His works blended European neoclassicism, Symbolist art and Art Nouveau with oriental forms and techniques to form a distinctive visual lexicon. Versatile and productive, he lent this unique style to most artistic mediums, including the fine arts, illustration, sculpture, repousee, jewellery design, and ceramics."Raban also designed a wide range of Jewish objects, including Hanukkah menorahs, temple windows, and Torah arks. Temple Emanuel (Beaumont, Texas) has a notable set of six windows, each 16-feet high]. The windows were commissioned from Raban in 1922 by Rabbi Samuel Rosinger. Each window depicts an event in the life of one of the principal Hebrew prophets, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Moses, and Isaiah.]Raban collaborated with other artists to produce versions of his work as ceramic tiles, a number of which can still be sees on buildings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, including the Bialik House. The 1925 Lederberg house, at the intersection of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street features a series of large ceramic murals designed by Raban. The four murals show a Jewish pioneer sowing and harvesting, a shepherd, and Jerusalem with a verse from Jeremiah 31:4, "Again I will rebuild thee and thous shalt be rebuilt." When Rome destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E., only one outer wall remained standing. The Romans probably would have destroyed that wall as well, but it must have seemed too insignificant to them; it was not even part of the Temple itself, just an outer wall surrounding the Temple Mount. For the Jews, however, this remnant of what was the most sacred building in the Jewish world quickly became the holiest spot in Jewish life. Throughout the centuries Jews from throughout the world made the difficult pilgrimage to Palestine, and immediately headed for the Kotel ha-Ma'aravi (the Western Wall) to thank God. The prayers offered at the Kotel were so heartfelt that gentiles began calling the site the “Wailing Wall.” This undignified name never won a wide following among traditional Jews; the term “Wailing Wall” is not used in Hebrew. The Western Wall was subjected to far worse than semantic indignities. During the more than one thousand years Jerusalem was under Muslim rule, the Arabs often used the Wall as a garbage dump, so as to humiliate the Jews who visited it. For nineteen years, from 1948 to 1967, the Kotel was under Jordanian rule. Although the Jordanians had signed an armistice agreement in 1949 guaranteeing Jews the right to visit the Wall, not one Israeli Jew was ever permitted to do so. One of the first to reach the Kotel in the 1967 Six-Day War was Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who helped revive a traditional Jewish custom by inserting a written petition into its cracks. It was later revealed that Dayan's prayer was that a lasting peace "descend upon the House of Israel." The custom of inserting written prayers into the Kotel's cracks is so widespread that some American-Jewish newspapers carry advertisements for services that insert such prayers on behalf of sick Jews. The mystical qualities associated with the Kotel are underscored in a popular Israeli song, a refrain of which runs: “There are people with hearts of stone, and stones with hearts of people.” A rabbi in Jerusalem once told me that the Hebrew expression “The walls have ears” was originally said about the Western Wall. Unfortunately, even a symbol as unifying as the Kotel can become a source of controversy in Jewish life. Ultra-Orthodox Jews have long opposed organized women's prayer services at the Wall; prayer services they maintain, may only be conducted by males. On occasion they have violently dispersed such services, throwing chairs and other “missiles” at the praying women. Under intense public pressure however, the right of women to pray collectively at the Kotel is gradually being won. In addition to the large crowds that come to pray at the Kotel on Friday evenings, it is also a common gathering place on all Jewish holidays, particularly on the fast of Tisha Be-Av, which commemorates the destruction of both Temples. Today the Wall is a national symbol, and the opening or closing ceremonies of many Jewish events, including secular ones, are conducted there ****** Is it "the Western Wall" or "the Wailing Wall"? Jews nowadays make a point of saying "Western"; non-Jews say both; and the question, which has hitherto seemed a semantic one tinged with religious and national overtones, has now become part of the wrangling over President Clinton's proposed Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. In the words of the Israeli political and military analyst Ze'ev Schiff, writing in the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz: "What is the length of the Western Wall? Is it confined to the wall facing the space traditionally used by Jews for prayer, which is only 58 meters, or does it include the entire western retaining wall of the Temple Mount? The Palestinians demand that any diplomatic settlement adhere to the shorter length, known as "the Wailing Wall." Israel insists on "the Western Wall"...whose length is 485 meters. Let us try to shed some philological light on the matter. There is no doubt that the Hebrew term ha-kotel ha-ma'aravi or "Western Wall" is far older than "Wailing Wall." Thus, for instance, in Shemot Rabba, a midrashic collection of exegeses on the book of Exodus from the seventh or eighth century C.E., we find the saying attributed to Rabbi Acha (himself a fourth-century scholar) that, even after the destruction of the Temple, "the Shekhinah [God's presence in the world] never leaves the Western Wall." There is some doubt, though, whether Rabbi Acha was actually referring to today's Western Wall rather than to the ruined west wall of the Temple building itself, since there is no mention by any similarly early source of the custom of praying or mourning at today's wall. Indeed, in the early centuries after the destruction of the Temple, Jews were prohibited by the Roman authorities from entering the city of Jerusalem at all, and the customary place for mourning the Temple was the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the Temple Mount from the east. A description of this rite is given by the fourth-century Church Father Jerome, who observed Jews on the Mount of Olives on the Ninth of Av, the day of mourning for the Temple, wailing and lamenting while they looked down on its ruins. The earliest clear use of ha-kotel ha-ma'aravi in the sense of today's "Western Wall" is by the 11th-century Italian Hebrew poet Ahima'az ben Paltiel. This, too, though, may predate the actual use of the wall by Jews for prayer, since it is not until the 16th century that we hear of the wall being used for that purpose The English term "Wailing Wall" or its equivalent in other languages dates from much later. In fact despite its hoary sound, "Wailing Wall" is a strictly 20th-century English usage introduced by the British after their conquest of Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917. In the 19th century, when European travelers first began visiting Palestine in sufficient numbers to notice the Jews there at all, the Western Wall was commonly referred to as "the Wailing Place," as in the following passage from Samuel Manning's "Those Holy Fields" (1873): A little further along the western [retaining] wall we come to the Wailing-place of the Jews.... Here the Jews assemble every Friday to mourn over their fallen state.... Some press their lips against crevices in the masonry as though imploring an answer from some unseen presence within, others utter loud cries of anguish. The "Wailing-place" was a translation of El-Mabka, or "the Place of Weeping," the traditional Arabic term for the wall. Within a short time after the commencement of the British Mandate, however, "Wailing Wall" became the standard English term, nor did Jews have any compunctions about using it. Only after the Six-Day War in 1967 did it become de rigueur in Jewish circles to say "Western Wall"— a reflection of the feeling, first expressed by official Israeli usage and then spreading to the Diaspora, that, with the reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty, there was no longer anything to wail about. Henceforward, the wall should be a place of celebration. This happened so quickly that it is difficult to find a Jewish book written after 1967 in which the term "Wailing Wall" occurs. Gradually, the non-Jewish world began to fall in line, so that "Western Wall" predominates in contemporary non-Jewish usage too, though "Wailing Wall" can still be found there. Muslims, for their part, use neither term, "El-Mabka" having fallen out of favor in the 1920s with growing Arab-Jewish tensions over rights at the wall. The Palestinians then began calling it "El-Burak," after the name of Mohammed's horse that was supposedly tethered there on the prophet's legendary night ride to Jerusalem and heaven. But in Hebrew it has always been ha-kotel ha-ma'aravi, at least for the last thousand years. Or rather, this is its full form, which Israelis rarely use in ordinary conversation. In Israel one generally hears no more than ha-kotel, "the Wall," the subject being clear, since the everyday Hebrew word for "wall" is kir and kotel is used only in special idioms. Perhaps as part of his carefully prepared package of compromises, Mr. Clinton could prevail upon both sides to do the same and drop both "Wailing" and "Western." The Wailing Wall or Western Wall is the remains of the great Jewish temple, which had stood for close to 500 years. Herod began rebuilding and adding on to the temple in approximately 19 B.C.E., and the total work was not finished until fifty years later. The temple itself was destroyed by the Romans only a few years after its completion, circa 70 C.E. It is thought by Jews to be the most sacred of places, because the temple itself was thought to be the place where God resides on earth. Praying at the Wailing Wall signifies being in the presence of the Divine. Jews from all countries, and as well as tourists of other religious backgrounds, come to pray at the wall, where it is said one immediately has the “ear of god.” Those who cannot pray at the wall can send prayers or ask for the Kaddish to be said for departed loved ones. Prayers sent in are placed into the cracks of the walls and are called tzetzels. There is usually a small charge for this service. The name "Wailing Wall" is actually a Christian term. The Jews refer to the wall as the Western Wall or Kotel HaMaaravi. Though the Wailing Wall has been considered the holiest of places on earth for Jews, it has also been the source of grief and war. During the crusades, Jerusalem was held for a short time by European crusaders. It belonged to Spain, then to Turkey. During Spanish occupation, Judaism was a punishable offense, because Catholics mistakenly attributed the death of Christ to the Jews. When Jews were not being exiled from Jerusalem, or put to death, they were certainly not given access to the wall. In the 16th century, Jews regained access to the Wailing Wall to pray and assemble there. This permission was granted by the Arab Sultan, Selim, who is also credited with finding the first archaeological evidence that the wall existed, buried under refuse. Relative harmony in worshipping at the wall persisted until the 19th century. Then, Jewish leaders wanted control of the Wailing Wall and attempts were made by both Muslims and Jews to purchase it. Eventually, Arab leaders kept control, and forbid Jews to gather there. This was a source of much pain to the Jews, to be denied access to their central religious site. Struggle for use of the Wailing Wall continued through the 20th century, with bitterness among both religious groups. Islam holds some claim to the religious site, as does Judaism, because it is often believed that the prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven either near or at the Wailing Wall. Further, Islam worships the same One God as the Jews, though the teachings of the Old Testament are interpreted and added to by the writings of the Prophet Muhammad. With the establishment of Israel, control of the Wailing Wall returned to the Jews in 1967. However, there is still much underlying bitterness regarding this place where the holiest of holies resides, which in part contributes to continued poor relationships between Arabic countries and Israel. While enmity remains, the Wailing Wall has also been the site of reconciliation between Jews and Catholics. Pope John Paul II was the first pope to pray at the wall, as well as in a synagogue where he apologized for centuries of Catholic persecution of Jews, referring to them as the Catholics' “elder brothers.” Today the Wailing Wall can be visited at any time of the day, though visitors are thoroughly searched. Women of any religion, in respect for Judaic law, should wear modest clothing, and there are separate entrances for men and women, though they can regroup at the Wall. Only the bottom seven layers of the original stones of the Wailing Wall remain, but the both the Kotel tunnels and the sheer length of the wall impress visitors. The excavated cornerstones are close to 50 tons (approximately 45t). Many non-Jews describe a feeling of the sacred when viewing the wall. Whether viewed by the religious or non-religious, the Wailing Wall is an awesome structure, significantly rich in history both good and bad. Wolf Rawicki, later Hebraize his name to Zeev Raban, was born as in Lodz in 1890 and died in Jerusalem in 1970. His Father - Yechiel Ravitzki was a Jewish Rabbi in Kalish-Poland. His Mother - Reisel Besser was a daughter of a well-known merchant family from Poland. Right from childhood, Raban had acquired a traditional education as he studied in "cheder". From 1905 to 1911 Raban studied sculpture and decorative arts in Europe, first in his hometown of Lodz and than in Munich, Paris and Brussels. When arrived to Lodz in 1911, he heard about the Bezalel School of arts and Crafts exhibition that took place in the city. At that time he met with enthusiastic group of young people who had just arrived from the "Holy land". Their stories had captured his heart and the first seed of yearning to Israel begun to grow. After a while he returned to Paris- where he met Prof. Boris Schatz, who invited him to teach at Bezalel School- Jerusalem. Raban arrived to Israel on 1912 willing to join the efforts of establishing a New Hebrew society and a new form of a Hebrew Art in The Holy land. Right than his work began: He immediately joined the staff of teachers in the Bezalel Scholl of Arts and Crafts: first as a teacher and than as the director of the Repousse workshop. He was also a teaching Anatomy and decorative Arts and had designs most of the works until 1929. On 1913 along with Shmuel Pressov and Meir Gur-Arie, he opened the "Menora" workshop where they designed relief and souvenirs made of Terra-Cotta. They used the following motifs in their work: - The Chad Gadya Stories - The Samson and the Lion Story. - The Story of Adam And Eve, Cain and Abel. - The also used the Holy Places, Female Figures and the beautiful landscapes of Israel, in their work. Raban Also designed most of the works that wan manufactured in the Sharar work shop and in the Stantsky Gift shops: Menorah lamps, Brass Plates for Passover, and many other ceremonials and souvenir. Raban studied sculpture and the decorative arts in Europe, first in his hometown and later in Munich, Paris, and Brussels. At the Kunstgewerbechule in Munich, Raban learned design including object and jewelry design in Paris where he specialized in sculpture and, in Brussels where he was influenced by Symbolism and earned his living through architectural decoration projects. Raban reached Eretz-Israel in 1912 and joined the staff of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem at the invitation of its director Boris Schatz. Raban viewed himself as a pioneer in the renewal of Hebrew art in Eretz-Israel and was actively involved in the forming of the ethos of the growing nation. He encouraged tourism through his Poster art, illustrated Hebrew primers, and endowed decorative and functional objects with Jewish/Hebrew content. Raban underwent a metamorphosis in his Art from the influence of his studies in Western Art which resulted in the incorporation of Eastern techniques and motifs and the use of indigent flora and fauna. An important stage in that transformation was the adoption of the Yemenite as a model for the Biblical figure. Raban's acquaintance had been with a European Symbolism that was international, equivocal, and often personal.* But in Eretz Israel, Raban created a "Hebrew Symbolism" that was national and carried a clear message although he still preferred the ideal and the archetypal over realistic. He developed a visual lexicon of motifs based on Jewish designs and topics, and to these he added his own Hebrew calligraphic script and other decorative elements, to form what was to become the "Bezalel style". Visual arts in Israel References Israeli painting: from post-Impressionism to post-Zionism, By Ronald Fuhrer, Overlook Press, 1998, p. 24 "Zeev Raban (Ravitzki)". The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: Information Center for Israeli Art. Retrieved 5 June 2019. AATC Artists – Ze'ev Raban Jerusalem International YMCA – Architecture: the building Sotheby's auction file Chaim Nachman Bialik Home, in Batia Carmiel, Tiles Adorned City; Bezalel Ceramics on Tel Aviv Houses, 1923-1929, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, copyright 1996, book in Hebrew and some English with illustrations Spertus |Spertus Museum | Chicago Weiner, Hollace Ava; Kessler, Jimmy (2006). Jewish Stars in Texas: Rabbis and Their Work. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. p. 241. ISBN 9781585444946. "Rivlin Lights White House Menorah with 'Prayer for Liberty'". The Times of Israel. December 9, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2019. Nosanchuk, Matt (December 9, 2015). "We Asked, You Answered: "What's the Story Behind Your Menorah?"". The White House. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved May 3, 2019. Further reading

Price: 79 USD

Location: Rishon Lezion

End Time: 2023-12-12T10:11:53.000Z

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