A Letter to American Jewry Concerning “Bezalel”
Written By: Dr. Joseph Klausner
A distinguished visitor arrived in the United States from the Land of Israel; he is one of our few creative forces, the well-known artist and sculptor, Boris Schatz, founder and director of the “Bezalel” School of Arts and Crafts, in Jerusalem. Critics of art will review his work and the art he gave to humanity, and they will pass their judgment from a purely artistic point of view; this, however, is not my task, it is a specialty which it not mine. I shall consider the artist and his art from a different aspect, which, I am quite sure, will not be touched upon by them, because it is not their specialty and therefore it is not within their sphere.
In plastic arts, like in music, poetry and science, there are two kinds of talents; one we call the personal talent, the other, the universal talent. The personal talent is capable of receiving an impression, a desire to gratify his ambition will urge him on to express the impression in artistic form; he will create something exceptionally good ; something that has much of the artistic and aesthetic values, but not more; he is not a path finder, he can show no new roads, no new tendencies and no new style to the world of art. It is quite different with the universal talent; he is not only the producer of arts that remain everlasting, he is also the creator of propensities, he is a builder of new roads, a discoverer of new lines of new perspectives, and new vistas of thought. The universal talent digs new canals to bring forth to the surface certain streams, which were heretofore hidden, deep in the people’s Soul, waiting there to be discovered by a creative and organizing force. It matters little that the canals are narrow, the stream will break through and like a tidal wave it will give life to the spiritual desert.
Professor Boris Schatz belongs to the universal class of artists; he is possessed of creative genius and organizing ability; he is not only the artist of exquisite and beautiful paintings and sculpture; he is also a discoverer of new tendencies, a founder of new highways and byways in the realm of art. He is a pioneer who invaded new and untrodden territory in Art’s domain. His splendid Monograph with forty photographs of his art productions, recently published in Jerusalem, reveals to us his creative spirit as an artist, as well as the new spirit he perpetuated in his works of art. Before us is a long list of the work of his creative spirit; we divide them into four different classes, as follows:
I. The broken soul in the Diaspora. There is no other man who shares as deeply in the individual and national feelings to which the Jew gave expression in the Diaspora, as Professor Schatz. These feelings bear witness that the spirit of God, which revealed itself to us on Mount Sinai and at the Jordan, still illumines the depths of the Jewish soul even in the Diaspora, where it sank low and it became degraded. These feelings he expressed in the following works: The Scribe, the Penitent, Blowing the Shofer, the Marriage Broker. This is my portion of all my labor, the Blessing of the Lulav, the Yeminite Scribe, the Rabbi’s Blessing, a Grandmother, the First Mitzwah, the Blessing of the Sabbath Candles, Havdalah, a Jewish Mother and One of the people of the book. If the Jewish soul is not completely manifested through all these works of art, it is because much of its luster and brilliancy was lost in Goluth, but many fragments remained intact, in spite of the persecution and the darkness of the Ghetto walls. His autobiography, which is probably the only one of its kind, he begins with a deep and tragic sweetness, until the lines grow light and humorous; in this volume we perceive that only one who suffered the Goluth as vehemently as Schatz, can love as strongly as he loves. He is far from those artists who stand aloof, they look upon Judaism from a distance, and they produce Jewish art as if they were strangers, who belong to a different sphere. Schatz dwells among the masses; the things that are sacred to them are also sacred to him, he gathers their sorrows into his soul; therefore his art is so close to us and his language so forcefully appeals to our hearts. And yet Schatz does not idolize; his eyes are open to our faults and vices; in his autobiography he enumerates many of them; and his criticisms of them are severe and even harsh. He believes that the great Jewish soul, the sufferings and broken soul found a temporary outlet, or shelter, in the religious and national thoughts and meditations; it preserved the last Jewish spark, it was kept from a total extinction until the arrival of the national flame which was to bring light and warmth.
II. The longing for our redemption. The strength to endure and to survive the great sufferings of the Diaspora was acquired by the Jewish people only through their intensive longing and yearning for a deliverance. This thought is expressed by Schatz in his wonderful collection of; Requiem, The Wailing Wall, the Year 1918, the Ninth of Ab, Midnight Prayer, and When Will Come the Miraculous End? In this collection Professor Schatz conveys most emphatically the spirit of an endless longing of a people to be redeemed from slavery. These works of art can be translated in the following words: When will the long night of the Diaspora disappear? When will the sun of redemption shine on us? When will arrive the miraculous end? How long shall we weep for Zion and mourn for Jerusalem? Is it too soon to have compassion for the people and their land? Will God’s wrath rest forever on His chosen people and the holy land? ... In many variations, new and old, the artist reveals through his master pieces all these questions which have been on the lips of the Jewish people for a thousand years; and in times of disaster (like in the late world war) these interrogations break out with greater force. This great artist was capable of giving real artistic expression to grave national problems. His relief in bronze, “When Will Come the Miraculous End?" is rightfully considered his most serious production.
III. Historic figures. The hope and expectation to be redeemed was too deep-rooted in our hearts to forget the historic characters of our past; Schatz sought in the souls of our great men either their burning desire for our independence, or their heart stirring lamentations for our national misfortune. Schatz won worldwide distinction by creating: Mattathia, Judith, Elija, the prophet, and Jeremiah; they were all prophets, three of them are known as the “Avengers,” they killed the enemies to avenge the God of Israel and for the national glory of their people; the fourth was the great lamentor, he wrote the greatest lamentations that were ever produced. However, Jeremiah was not contented with tears and sighs alone, while he mourns and weeps for the terrible misfortune of his people he spurs them on to action and he urges them on to fight for freedom. Schatz conceives Elija, the prophet, not only in the light of one who kills the priests who are servants in the temples of the false deities, but also as one who proclaims the coming of Messiah, he blows on the great horn, “the shofer of the redeemer” to announce the advance of freedom and independence.
IV. Our present great men. Schatz believes that in addition to the great men of the past it is of much importance to have great men at present, who are devoting their genius and ability to the cause of their people, thus he shows us a galaxy of great men of the present era, they are writers, publicists, poets and artists. Twice he modeled Doctor Herzl; he also modeled Wolfsohn, Prof. Wahrburg, Prof. H. Schapiro, Ben Yehudah, Imber, Schechter, the artists, Hirschberg and Lillien and Joseph Trumpeldor, the young hero who protected our border with the last drops of his young blood. In the big Jewish heart of Prof. Schatz there is enough room for all our great men, of all times and climes; he revives in all of them the one thought, the thought of redemption; this thought can be read in all their faces, they reflect the spirit of God which shines on a new nation. The creative spirit of Schatz the artist gives him a first place in our national temple of art, but he deserves a place of equal distinction as a co-builder of a new nation.
In a foreign land, in a forsaken corner in Asia, surrounded by a society that even now considers it a sin to have women in parliament because they will have to sit together with men; in a land where the Ashkanazi refuses to eat the meat prepared by a Sefardy; in such a land and amidst such surroundings, Schatz had the courage to open a school of arts and crafts. In the holy city of Jerusalem, the nest of religious bigotry and fanaticism, he established an institution of art where “images, icons and idols” were painted and cast in bronze. The courage it required, the love that filled his heart for his people, their land and for art, only men with great vision can realize and appreciate. Twenty years ago Professor Schatz abandoned a professorship in Bulgaria, where he was also official artist to King Ferdinand, and he came to Jerusalem.
It is easy to find faults with “Bezalel,” one is apt to find it there as he will find it in any big institution, in one of the small countries, far away from civilization; but let one undertake a like task under like difficulties, and not one-half of the success would be accomplished. The sufferings Schatz endured as man and artist are known to very few; that which he is now suffering for lack of understanding and appreciation, and the present economic struggle of the first cultural institution on our own soul, are known to all who are interested in the development of arts and crafts in Erez Israel.
All the trials and tribulations which Professor Schatz endured in Palestine during the twenty years did not weaken his faith in the Jewish people, nor in the land of the people. To Schatz, like to all creative spirits, the word “failure” is unknown. With a pure-fate, a clear vision, and the imagination of a poet and an artist, Schatz goes on dreaming the greatest of all dreams: the sublime dream of the resurrection of a whole nation. In a most confidential form he reveals to us this dream in his Utopia: “The New Jerusalem.” His faith is clear, pure and firm, it cannot be conquered, and it will admit no doubt. His is the creative spirit of a real hero artist, of a genius, whose mind is bent to create the great and colossal. That he accomplished this we need only consider the time, place and the meager means which he possessed at his disposal; only then will we realize the real greatness of Schatz.
A distinguished visitor came to the United States from the Land of Israel; one of the creators whose numbers are very few in our land; one who contributed much to the rebuilding of our land. We hope that America will know how to appreciate the honor.
A Letter to American Jewry Concerning “Bezalel”
Written By: Dr. Joseph Klausner
A distinguished visitor arrived in the United States from the Land of Israel; he is one of our few creative forces, the well-known artist and sculptor, Boris Schatz, founder and director of the “Bezalel” School of Arts and Crafts, in Jerusalem. Critics of art will review his work and the art he gave to humanity, and they will pass their judgment from a purely artistic point of view; this, however, is not my task, it is a specialty which it not mine. I shall consider the artist and his art from a different aspect, which, I am quite sure, will not be touched upon by them, because it is not their specialty and therefore it is not within their sphere.
In plastic arts, like in music, poetry and science, there are two kinds of talents; one we call the personal talent, the other, the universal talent. The personal talent is capable of receiving an impression, a desire to gratify his ambition will urge him on to express the impression in artistic form; he will create something exceptionally good ; something that has much of the artistic and aesthetic values, but not more; he is not a path finder, he can show no new roads, no new tendencies and no new style to the world of art. It is quite different with the universal talent; he is not only the producer of arts that remain everlasting, he is also the creator of propensities, he is a builder of new roads, a discoverer of new lines of new perspectives, and new vistas of thought. The universal talent digs new canals to bring forth to the surface certain streams, which were heretofore hidden, deep in the people’s Soul, waiting there to be discovered by a creative and organizing force. It matters little that the canals are narrow, the stream will break through and like a tidal wave it will give life to the spiritual desert.
Professor Boris Schatz belongs to the universal class of artists; he is possessed of creative genius and organizing ability; he is not only the artist of exquisite and beautiful paintings and sculpture; he is also a discoverer of new tendencies, a founder of new highways and byways in the realm of art. He is a pioneer who invaded new and untrodden territory in Art’s domain. His splendid Monograph with forty photographs of his art productions, recently published in Jerusalem, reveals to us his creative spirit as an artist, as well as the new spirit he perpetuated in his works of art. Before us is a long list of the work of his creative spirit; we divide them into four different classes, as follows:
I. The broken soul in the Diaspora. There is no other man who shares as deeply in the individual and national feelings to which the Jew gave expression in the Diaspora, as Professor Schatz. These feelings bear witness that the spirit of God, which revealed itself to us on Mount Sinai and at the Jordan, still illumines the depths of the Jewish soul even in the Diaspora, where it sank low and it became degraded. These feelings he expressed in the following works: The Scribe, the Penitent, Blowing the Shofer, the Marriage Broker. This is my portion of all my labor, the Blessing of the Lulav, the Yeminite Scribe, the Rabbi’s Blessing, a Grandmother, the First Mitzwah, the Blessing of the Sabbath Candles, Havdalah, a Jewish Mother and One of the people of the book. If the Jewish soul is not completely manifested through all these works of art, it is because much of its luster and brilliancy was lost in Goluth, but many fragments remained intact, in spite of the persecution and the darkness of the Ghetto walls. His autobiography, which is probably the only one of its kind, he begins with a deep and tragic sweetness, until the lines grow light and humorous; in this volume we perceive that only one who suffered the Goluth as vehemently as Schatz, can love as strongly as he loves. He is far from those artists who stand aloof, they look upon Judaism from a distance, and they produce Jewish art as if they were strangers, who belong to a different sphere. Schatz dwells among the masses; the things that are sacred to them are also sacred to him, he gathers their sorrows into his soul; therefore his art is so close to us and his language so forcefully appeals to our hearts. And yet Schatz does not idolize; his eyes are open to our faults and vices; in his autobiography he enumerates many of them; and his criticisms of them are severe and even harsh. He believes that the great Jewish soul, the sufferings and broken soul found a temporary outlet, or shelter, in the religious and national thoughts and meditations; it preserved the last Jewish spark, it was kept from a total extinction until the arrival of the national flame which was to bring light and warmth.
II. The longing for our redemption. The strength to endure and to survive the great sufferings of the Diaspora was acquired by the Jewish people only through their intensive longing and yearning for a deliverance. This thought is expressed by Schatz in his wonderful collection of; Requiem, The Wailing Wall, the Year 1918, the Ninth of Ab, Midnight Prayer, and When Will Come the Miraculous End? In this collection Professor Schatz conveys most emphatically the spirit of an endless longing of a people to be redeemed from slavery. These works of art can be translated in the following words: When will the long night of the Diaspora disappear? When will the sun of redemption shine on us? When will arrive the miraculous end? How long shall we weep for Zion and mourn for Jerusalem? Is it too soon to have compassion for the people and their land? Will God’s wrath rest forever on His chosen people and the holy land? ... In many variations, new and old, the artist reveals through his master pieces all these questions which have been on the lips of the Jewish people for a thousand years; and in times of disaster (like in the late world war) these interrogations break out with greater force. This great artist was capable of giving real artistic expression to grave national problems. His relief in bronze, “When Will Come the Miraculous End?" is rightfully considered his most serious production.
III. Historic figures. The hope and expectation to be redeemed was too deep-rooted in our hearts to forget the historic characters of our past; Schatz sought in the souls of our great men either their burning desire for our independence, or their heart stirring lamentations for our national misfortune. Schatz won worldwide distinction by creating: Mattathia, Judith, Elija, the prophet, and Jeremiah; they were all prophets, three of them are known as the “Avengers,” they killed the enemies to avenge the God of Israel and for the national glory of their people; the fourth was the great lamentor, he wrote the greatest lamentations that were ever produced. However, Jeremiah was not contented with tears and sighs alone, while he mourns and weeps for the terrible misfortune of his people he spurs them on to action and he urges them on to fight for freedom. Schatz conceives Elija, the prophet, not only in the light of one who kills the priests who are servants in the temples of the false deities, but also as one who proclaims the coming of Messiah, he blows on the great horn, “the shofer of the redeemer” to announce the advance of freedom and independence.
IV. Our present great men. Schatz believes that in addition to the great men of the past it is of much importance to have great men at present, who are devoting their genius and ability to the cause of their people, thus he shows us a galaxy of great men of the present era, they are writers, publicists, poets and artists. Twice he modeled Doctor Herzl; he also modeled Wolfsohn, Prof. Wahrburg, Prof. H. Schapiro, Ben Yehudah, Imber, Schechter, the artists, Hirschberg and Lillien and Joseph Trumpeldor, the young hero who protected our border with the last drops of his young blood. In the big Jewish heart of Prof. Schatz there is enough room for all our great men, of all times and climes; he revives in all of them the one thought, the thought of redemption; this thought can be read in all their faces, they reflect the spirit of God which shines on a new nation. The creative spirit of Schatz the artist gives him a first place in our national temple of art, but he deserves a place of equal distinction as a co-builder of a new nation.
In a foreign land, in a forsaken corner in Asia, surrounded by a society that even now considers it a sin to have women in parliament because they will have to sit together with men; in a land where the Ashkanazi refuses to eat the meat prepared by a Sefardy; in such a land and amidst such surroundings, Schatz had the courage to open a school of arts and crafts. In the holy city of Jerusalem, the nest of religious bigotry and fanaticism, he established an institution of art where “images, icons and idols” were painted and cast in bronze. The courage it required, the love that filled his heart for his people, their land and for art, only men with great vision can realize and appreciate. Twenty years ago Professor Schatz abandoned a professorship in Bulgaria, where he was also official artist to King Ferdinand, and he came to Jerusalem.
It is easy to find faults with “Bezalel,” one is apt to find it there as he will find it in any big institution, in one of the small countries, far away from civilization; but let one undertake a like task under like difficulties, and not one-half of the success would be accomplished. The sufferings Schatz endured as man and artist are known to very few; that which he is now suffering for lack of understanding and appreciation, and the present economic struggle of the first cultural institution on our own soul, are known to all who are interested in the development of arts and crafts in Erez Israel.
All the trials and tribulations which Professor Schatz endured in Palestine during the twenty years did not weaken his faith in the Jewish people, nor in the land of the people. To Schatz, like to all creative spirits, the word “failure” is unknown. With a pure-fate, a clear vision, and the imagination of a poet and an artist, Schatz goes on dreaming the greatest of all dreams: the sublime dream of the resurrection of a whole nation. In a most confidential form he reveals to us this dream in his Utopia: “The New Jerusalem.” His faith is clear, pure and firm, it cannot be conquered, and it will admit no doubt. His is the creative spirit of a real hero artist, of a genius, whose mind is bent to create the great and colossal. That he accomplished this we need only consider the time, place and the meager means which he possessed at his disposal; only then will we realize the real greatness of Schatz.
A distinguished visitor came to the United States from the Land of Israel; one of the creators whose numbers are very few in our land; one who contributed much to the rebuilding of our land. We hope that America will know how to appreciate the honor.