Jewry's Role in Human Affairs PIONEERS IN THE WORLD OF ART Evidence of the earliest Hebrew art appears in biblical accounts of the adornments and decorations of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and the Great Temples in Jerusalem. During the ages, artisans ornamented synagogues and their furnishings, illuminated prayer books and crafted designs into holy artifacts. But not until the 20th century did most artists ofJewish origin indulge in realistic representation. The flowering of their genius was a phenomenon of this century issuing from the palettes of Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Max Weber, Franz Kline, Jack Levine, Lee Krasner, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Mark Rothko and Robert Rauchenberg to name a few. Their predecessors and colleagues included: , ••••••••••••••••••••• CAMILLE PISSARRO (1830-1903) b. St. Thomas, Danish West Indies Born to a Sephardi family, the often impoverished painter spent most of his life in Paris and its vicinity as a leading proponent of Impressionism-- a school of art he helped establish. Early in his career, Pissarro had been influenced by the works ! fp i r 7.- of Corot, Manet and other French avant-garde painters, as well as by the English landscapes of 1 Constable and Turner. But it was Georges Seurat's pointillist technique of connecting tiny dots of primary colors that he eventually adopted and most often employed. His main theme,s were orderly but understated landscapes, urban and river scenes, and panoramas of rural life scintillating with light. In his passion for the movement he championed, Pissarro helped arrange Impressionism's first major exposition in 1874, a debut with works by Renoir, Monet and Cezanne--aspiring young artists to whom he gave constant fatherly support. His own paintings were at first largely ignored or reproached by critics and the public. Although discouraged, he persisted in increasing his output, if only to feed an almost penniless family of eight. A long, collegial friendship with Paul Gauguin had also dissolved. His fortunes changed in 1892. A large show of his collected work finally met with success and financial reward. By the time of his death eleven years later, the kindly and gentle master had bequeathed more than 1,600 treasured works of art in all media to private and museum collections worldwide. His legacy also included four sons--Lucien, Georges, Felix and Paul-Emile--who were themselves talented artists of varied reputations. MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985) b. Vitebsk, Russia. His father worked for a herring-monger and his mother was a shopkeeper; from these humble beginnings came a precocious and gifted son whose surreal- istic/dreamlike creations spawned a lyrical genre all its own. By his mid-twenties, he occupied a ramshackle Parisian studio and cultivated friend- ships with Bohemian poets and artists like Max Jacob, Guillaume Appollinaire, Chaim Soutine, Robert Delaunay and Fernand Leger. Chagall thrived in their heady and audacious fellowship and nurtured a personal, inventive style which endured for a lifetime: childhood reveries ofJewish communities transformed into richly colored fantasies populated by figures and objects of religious folklore and village life, often swimming in space. Chagall returned to Russia in 1914 and was appointed Commissar of Fine Arts in his Vitebsk hometown. But conflicts with local authorities drove him to Moscow where he designed stage sets for Sholem Aleichem's plays and was attracted to etching and printmaking. Many hundreds of such illustrations in literary classics, including the Bible, represent most of his creative production during that period. Chagall resettled in Paris in 1923 and later fled to the U.S. before the Nazi onslaught. His return to France in the late Forties, and his growing reputation, launched a new career phase: major commissions from world-famed institutions. During the ensuing decades he completed a new ceiling for the Paris Opera and murals for the Metropolitan Opera House lobby. His glass window adorns the U.N. building and his tapestries hang in the Knesset. In an ecumenical breakthrough, Chagall was also the first Jewish artist contracted by the Vatican, in this instance for a stained glass panel for its audience hall. - Saul Stadttnauer Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors Irwin S. Field, Chairperson Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson OTHER VIEWS TOBIN from page 32 books it had paid for were advocating hate. While these examples of efforts to make the P.A. a responsible entity seem almost as comic as they do tragic, the blame for Palestinian corruption is not Arafat's alone. Israel played a part, too. In an effort to create a viable economy for the Palestinians, Israel encouraged its own business sector to invest in the terri- tories. But the result was not a vibrant free economy. Instead, Israeli companies partnered with some of Arafat's cronies and were silent partners to the corrup- tion and graft of the Palestinian kleptoc- racy. The Israeli government itself provid- ed Arafat with cash and other resources, all in the hope that by keeping him well lubricated with baksheesh or "bribes," he would keep the peace for Israel. In fact, the hopelessly utopian rheto- ric of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres notwithstanding, that was the plan all along. The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was openly cynical about the nature of Arafat's regime. He hoped that controlling terror would be easier for Arafat because his government would not be a democracy like Israel. That was a mistake. The only trustwor- thy peace is one between democracies. Arafat took the money, and paid Israel back with blood and terror. Fear Complicity The coming months will, no doubt, bring us more examples of goodwill programs designed to "reform" ArafaCs regime. The CIA itself has been volun- teered to oversee the consolidation of Arafat's security services. As some on the left are quick to point out, Oslo skeptics and chose who are not sympathetic to Palestinian Arab "aspira- tions" (like this writer) are not in a good position to persuade the Palestinians to play by the rules of democratic etiquette. Indeed, most Israelis and friends of Israel don't really care that much about the Palestinian right to the pursuit of happi- ness. All they want is for the Palestinians to cease trying to kill Israelis. But to forget that past aid to the same people only made the situation worse is worse than willful blindness. Arafat's war policy is actually popular with the Palestinians whom we want to give self- government. Encouraging this trend would make us complicit in the blood to be shed in the future by Arafat or any of those likely to succeed him. Is the United States really interested in creating another rogue terrorist state that will pose a threat not only to Israel, but also to the rest of the region — and the United States itself? Despite the lack of alternatives to Arafat, this is no time for a revival of Oslo and its fantasies. Unless the Palestinians discard Arafat's reign of terror and adopt a democratic mode of government, the chances for peace with Israel are nil. Unless the donor nations make this a condition for future aid, there is no chance that Arafat, and those like him, will be deposed. And unless the Palestinians — the peo- ple in the street as well as those with Swiss bank accounts — give up their desire for war on Israel, more aid will only prolong the violence. It is true that it is not up to us to determine the Palestinians leaders or tell them how to live. But we can determine whether or not we wish to subsidize terror in the name of Palestinian reform. Call it paternalism, imperialism or naked self-interest, but without a com- plete change in the way Arafat and company operate and think, there should be no American money for the Palestinians and no pressure on Israel to accommodate them. E PLUMBING TIPS PUT AWAY THE PLUNGER! If your toilet will not • Siphon jet action to assist perform- flush or you have to ance for efficiency. flush it two or three • Designed for commercial and resi- times to clear the bowl, dential installations. you are a victim of the The toilet you Jeffrey Moss is new 1.6 gallon per flush select should be able vice-president of toilets. 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