ART AND RELIGION

 

 

SHOULD YOUR FAITH OR ETHNIC ORIGIN GIVE OTHERS THE RIGHT TO DEPRIVE YOU FROM FAME, ASK THE GREAT MASTERS: Samuel Hirszenberg, Mauricy Gottlieb, Moritz Oppenheim, Maurycy Minkowski, El Lissitzky, Jules Pascin, Amedeo Modigliani, Chana Orloff

 

THE QUESTION of what is Jewish art and who is a Jewish artist is nowhere more problematic than in the fine arts. Despite the persistent doubts and objections, Jewish artists joined in virtually all the art movements of the twentieth century. Though many artists do not make an association between their art and their Jewish birth, there have been numerous artists who acknowledge their Jewishness and the role being Jewish plays in their work. There are many whose work has mirrored the momentous events of Jewish experience in modern history. Certainly, while some artists portray Jewish subject matter or explore Jewish themes, not all do, and though many are not even representational, the work conveys both the personal expression of the artist and links to issues of Jewish life and Jewish identity. In the final analysis, perhaps the most justifiable criterion for considering a work to be Jewish art is the issue of identity, perceived or real. In certain instances, it is clear that the artist grappled with the issue of Jewish identity in creating the work of art; in others, the questions persists.  Worshipers in the Synagogue, 1878, Mauricy Gottlieb

 

 

Chana Orloff

Moritz Oppenheim has been called the first Jewish painter, and his work has been characterized as a watershed in Jewish cultural expression. While his nostalgic images seem to typify a sentimental yearning for an earlier age, Oppenheim's paintings represent the effort to preserve Jewish identity, reflecting his conscious encounter with the challenges of emancipation and assimilation in Germany. When he portrayed the great eighteenth-century Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, with Johann Caspar Lavater, a zealous Swiss Lutheran clergyman, Oppenheim was alluding to an encounter that represented a decisive juncture in Mendelssohn's life as he searched for an intellectual path for Judaism in the modern world. Mendelssohn knew that Lavater's dare to disprove the Christian faith or renounce his Judaism was actually yet another episode in a long line of polemics against Jews. Mendelssohn finally took up the challenge by writing the book Jerusalem to demonstrate his belief that indeed Jews could be full participants in the modern world. Oppenheim's paintings were immensely popular and, ironically, reproduced again and thus again and removed from the context of the struggle to which Oppenheim gave witness. It is the romanticism that remains, and Oppenheim's pioneering efforts as a champion of Jewish identity are little remembered. The spirit of emancipation which fostered Oppenheim's work in the nineteenth century reached a turning point as the century drew to a close. The ideals of the Enlightenment which had emphasized toleration and individual freedom seemed to be crumbling. While removal of some of the legal restrictions on Jews had stimulated the hopes that Jews could fully enter European society, progress was impeded with the renewal of anti-Jewish sentiment. Jewish life in Europe was undergoing radical change. In 1881, when seventy-five percent of the world Jewish population lived in eastern Europe, a series of pogroms broke out that would eventually strike at over two hundred Jewish communities. The hostility of the mobs was unchecked by the government. Disillusioned with the status quo, eastern European Jews took drastic measures. Over two and a half million would leave for the United States to seek economic stability and political freedom. Others joined the socialist movement to try to help build a just society for all in eastern Europe. A number joined the small but determined group of pioneers who were resolute in their aim of building a modern national state in the Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael.