Marc Chagall Presents UN
With His 'Window of Peace'
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (JTA)
stained glass "Window of
Peace," which Secretary General
U Thant ca 11 ed a "magnificent
work of art," was officially pre-
sented to the United Nations Sept.
17 by Marc Chagall, famous 77-
year-old Jewish artist, who de-
signed the panel as a memorial
to Dag Hammarskjold and the 15
other members of the United Na-
tions personnel who died with the
late Secretary General in a plane
crash at Ndola, Northern Rhode-
sia, exactly three years ago.
Chagall designed the panel with-
out charge in his studio in France
and the panel was executed in
stained glass by two of the world's
foremost artists in that medium,
Charles Marq and Jacques Simon.
The entire staff of the United Na-
tions Secretariat contributed the
costs of bringing the panel here
and placing it in the lobby of the
Secretariat building. Participating
in the brief but solmn dedicaotry
ceremonies in addition to Chagall
were Thant and Basile Yakovlev,
chairman of the UN staff commit-
tee.
—A
There are of course no difficulties'
about that in modern painting.
Modern art prefers to merely sug-
gest resemblances, perhaps adher-
ing to the principle that suggestion
is More' powerful than reality. In
the - Talmud, as I recall, there is a
Statement to the effect that a little
drop of water falling on the body
is often more poVverful than a
whole bath tub.
Kandinsky is said to have started
his modernistic trend when he hap-
pened to turn his picture up side
down and if' looked better to him
that way. It seems laughable, yet
turning things up side down, con-
trary to their usual positions, may
be a salutary practice for .other
things besides painting. It gives a
fresh point of view. Ben-Gurion
stands on his head every morning
following the Yoga practice and
finds it healthful.
Some years ago, Ben-Gurion
said to Mane Katz, the Israeli
p,ainter: "You know, I wanted to
understand the Greek philosoph-
ers, so I studied Greek and I now
understand them, but your paint-
ing, Mane, I can't seem to un-
derstand."
• • •
Chagall's Art
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright, 1964, JTA, lac.)
Marc Chagall, who has arrived in
this country to supervise the in-
stallation of -the windows he
stained for the United Nations
building, is unique among painters.
He is probably the only world
famous Jewish painter, especially
known for his painting of Jewish
subjects. Rembrandt painted many
types of Jews, but he was not a
Jew himself. Usually Jewish con-
tent is supposed to interfere with
world acceptance, but this is cer-
tainly not the case with Rembrandt
and Chagall.
Becoming an artist was not easy
for one born in the Russian Jewish
religious environment in which
Chagall was raised. Jewish life was
too uncertain for parents to en-
courage their children to embrace
so unsteady a calling as art. It's
like the story of the Jewish boy in
the Bronx who told his mother that
he wanted to be a wrestler.
"Fine," said his mother, "but
first be a dentist."
It is told of Antokolski, a Jew
who became accepted as Russia's
greatest sculptor, that when his
father caught him carving wood,
the boy would get a good strapping.
Yet one day young Antokolski had
the satisfaction of seeing the Czar
himself come to view his work.
During the last three or four
decades however, ,Jewish painters
have become quite numerous, in-
cluding some outstanding ones,
such as Pisarro, Modigliani and
Soutine. Someone once described
Pisarro as looking like the patri-
arch Abraham but actually he did
not identify himself as a Jew until
the Dreyfus trial. That brought out
the Jew in him as it did in Herzl.
(Leave it to the anti-Semites to
make good Jews of us.) Modigliani
is said to have come from the
Spinoza family, but he never identi-
fied himself particularly as a Jew.
In America, Max Weber and Ben
Shahn are outstanding painters.
Theologian Describes Jewishness of Jesus and the Early Christians
But after all, is it necessary to
understand so much? A woman
once commiserated with Clarence
Darrow. "Your wife doesn't under-
stand you," she said. "It would be
,worse if she did," Darrow replied.
A little obscurity helps mystery
and makes the imagination work
more. In the case of Chagall, how-
ever, there is no difficulty in rec-
ognizing what he has painted. In
lieu of obscurity, he fires the imag-
ination with his Hasidic fantasy ,
but we recognize the figures he has
painted, the Jew in his phylacteries
or the little Jew fiddling away on
the roof top.
A Christian theologian—Prof. the author elaborates on Jesus' elaborating on his thesis, Dr. En-
Morton S. Enslin of St. Lawrence' Jewish fidelities and on the slow- slin states speaking of the earliest
University—elaborates on early ness of Christian efforts in gain- Christians: "The word 'Christian'
Christian missionary activities in ing Jewish adherents. is used solely for convenience in
his new book, "From Jesus to He points out at the outset that reference; it was decades before
Christianity," published by Beacon "Jesus was not a Christian," that they thought of themselves as such
he
Press. "lived died
and loyal
a
and de- or were so referred to; they wefe
.This is, understandingly, strict- voted Jew, 71 but that "he scratched Jews to the finger tips."
ly a Christological work in which a match which started a conflagra-
tion which
has had tremend-
What doth the Lord require of
ous consequences in determining thee but to do justly, and to love
Two New Impressive the lives of countless millions
mercy, and to walk humbly with
In a footnote in the course of thy God?—(Micah 6:8).
Random House Plays
Random House has just issued
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foot in 'the Park" by Neil Simon
and "Doubletalk"' by Lewis John
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"Doubletalk" combines two short
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in New York last May 4. Franchot
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• • •
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Jewish School Texts
Lacking Data on Nazis
to Be Supplemented
PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — The
Jewish ComunitY Relations Coun-
cil here reported that a study of
textbooks used by Jewish religious
schools in Philadelphia showed
that students there have very
little awareness and understand-
ing of the Hitler era and the full
meaning of Nazism and the swas-
tika.
As a result, the JCRC will seek
to produce a study guide or text-
book supplement for use in Jew-
ish religious schools, I. David
Pincus, JCRC leader, announced.
"In light of the rise of anti-
Semitism in the Soviet Union
and Argentina, the recent Eich-
mann trial in Israel and . the
current trials of former Nazi
leaders in Germany, aid the is-
sues involving extremism in our
country; it is most important
that our youth have a full
knowledge and understanding
of the ravages suffered by Jews
and all mankind in the past two
decades as a result of fascism,
Nazism and all other forms of
totalitarianism setting up race
and religion against religion,"
Pincus declared.
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"If our youth are to help achieve
a society where human rights and
human dignity are enjoyed by all
regardless of race, religion or
ethnic origin, they must have an
awareness of the discrimination,
persecution and vilification and
other unconscionable wrongs per-
petrated against the Jews," he
added.
In addition to a local study
guide on the subject, Pincus said
that the results of the JCRC study
making representational images. of how the Hitler period is treated
in textbooks used by Jewish re-
ligious schools will be brought to
the attention of all national Jew-
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Mark Twain was once asked
many years ago -- before the
emergence of modern art—what
he thought of a certain painter.
He said that this painter seemed
to be obeying the Biblical in-
junction, that his picture bore no
resemblance to anything in the
heavens above or the earth below.
It has been said that Jews were
kept from following art, because
of this Biblical injunction against
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Friday, September 25, 1964-13
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
KE 5-4910
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11 7
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