An Explanation In Place of A Preface
Written By: “Friends of Bezalel”
After twenty years of hard labor, encountering great difficulties, overcoming, what seemed insurmountable obstacles and making supreme sacrifices, Professor Boris Schatz, founder and director of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem, came to our shores with a sad and mournful message that unless American Jewry would come to the rescue, Bezalel would have to close its doors. He came to us at a time when he should have been confined to his bed under the care of his physician whose orders he violated, because he prizes “Bezalel” more than his health, aye, more than life itself.
No other institution, in Palestine or elsewhere, has so endeared itself in the hearts of the common people as Bezalel did, and with Bezalel, its guiding spirit, Professor Schatz. In truth, the great mass of the Jewish people know no distinction between the creator and his work; very often the Professor is addressed as “Mr. Bezalel.” To become enshrined in the hearts of the common people as something noble and sacred, is in itself an accomplishment for which it is worthwhile to live and to die. But the common people are also the poor people, they are unable to patronize art, they are unable to make endowments, they are powerless to save the first born child of culture in the Land of Israel, the Bezalel school of arts and crafts. To obtain an endowment fund sufficient to secure the future of Bezalel, Professor Schatz will have to turn to the wealthy, refined and cultured, who know art and its meaning; who have an eye for the beautiful in form and color; who know its value and the position it occupies in all civilizations; and who are generous enough to maintain and support it. To assist Professor Schatz in his most sacred mission, to help him to obtain a proper hearing before those who can and will come to the rescue of Bezalel, we compiled this little booklet. It contains studies and the opinions of leading men and women in various fields of endeavor, concerning The Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts and also concerning its founder and director: Professor Boris Schatz. Together with these essays, the booklet contains a number of Newspaper clippings, the expressions of prominent editorial writers for the many leading Magazines and “Dailies.” Both the essays and clippings were written during the recent exhibits of Bezalel, which were held in the United States. Most of the larger reviews were translated by us from foreign languages.
The task of selection was one of extreme difficulty, because of our anxiety that it be representative in its character of the many groups among our people, whose views differ so vastly on all questions of importance, such as religion, politics, economics and society; and the material at our disposal was so voluminous and in such great abundance, that it almost left us in a maze. It is our only hope that the spirit of Bezalel guided us and lead us in the right direction; that our choice of selection will help to influence American Jewry, that Bezalel will be safe and secure to continue its work, to develop Jewish aesthetic taste, Jewish culture and Jewish art.
I entertain no more doubt that the new friends of Bezalel, together with the old ones will obtain with ease the necessary Bezalel fund; to make it possible to accomplish its object; to develop Jewish Art and Jewish Craft; and to enlarge and elevate Bezalel to dignity of an Academy of Arts, that it be a place to develop all our latent energy, ability and genius. To increase and enlarge its Museum and the Art Library; and it is to be hoped that our friends will give us an opportunity to open an industrial museum with a business agent in this country to sell our products and to take orders of new temples that are being built and of kindred institutions; which would give the opportunity to thousands of workers and to our artist students to earn a livelihood; and to Bezalel—to continue to develop our original art.
Bezalel
By Israel Zangwill
Bezalel, filled with wisdom to design,
Stones, precious woods, rich-broidered fabrics, gold;
Fed not the few with cunning manifold
Nor empty loveliness; his art divine
Set up a Tabernacle as a sign
Of oneness for a rabble many-souled,
So that each span of desert should behold
A nomad people with a steadfast shrine.
But we, its sons, who wander in the dark,
Footsore, far-scattered, growing less and less,
What whiteness gleams our brotherhood to mark,
What promised land our journey’s end to bless?
We are, unless we build some shrine and ark,
A dying rabble in a wilderness.
An Explanation In Place of A Preface
Written By: “Friends of Bezalel”
After twenty years of hard labor, encountering great difficulties, overcoming, what seemed insurmountable obstacles and making supreme sacrifices, Professor Boris Schatz, founder and director of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem, came to our shores with a sad and mournful message that unless American Jewry would come to the rescue, Bezalel would have to close its doors. He came to us at a time when he should have been confined to his bed under the care of his physician whose orders he violated, because he prizes “Bezalel” more than his health, aye, more than life itself.
No other institution, in Palestine or elsewhere, has so endeared itself in the hearts of the common people as Bezalel did, and with Bezalel, its guiding spirit, Professor Schatz. In truth, the great mass of the Jewish people know no distinction between the creator and his work; very often the Professor is addressed as “Mr. Bezalel.” To become enshrined in the hearts of the common people as something noble and sacred, is in itself an accomplishment for which it is worthwhile to live and to die. But the common people are also the poor people, they are unable to patronize art, they are unable to make endowments, they are powerless to save the first born child of culture in the Land of Israel, the Bezalel school of arts and crafts. To obtain an endowment fund sufficient to secure the future of Bezalel, Professor Schatz will have to turn to the wealthy, refined and cultured, who know art and its meaning; who have an eye for the beautiful in form and color; who know its value and the position it occupies in all civilizations; and who are generous enough to maintain and support it. To assist Professor Schatz in his most sacred mission, to help him to obtain a proper hearing before those who can and will come to the rescue of Bezalel, we compiled this little booklet. It contains studies and the opinions of leading men and women in various fields of endeavor, concerning The Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts and also concerning its founder and director: Professor Boris Schatz. Together with these essays, the booklet contains a number of Newspaper clippings, the expressions of prominent editorial writers for the many leading Magazines and “Dailies.” Both the essays and clippings were written during the recent exhibits of Bezalel, which were held in the United States. Most of the larger reviews were translated by us from foreign languages.
The task of selection was one of extreme difficulty, because of our anxiety that it be representative in its character of the many groups among our people, whose views differ so vastly on all questions of importance, such as religion, politics, economics and society; and the material at our disposal was so voluminous and in such great abundance, that it almost left us in a maze. It is our only hope that the spirit of Bezalel guided us and lead us in the right direction; that our choice of selection will help to influence American Jewry, that Bezalel will be safe and secure to continue its work, to develop Jewish aesthetic taste, Jewish culture and Jewish art.
I entertain no more doubt that the new friends of Bezalel, together with the old ones will obtain with ease the necessary Bezalel fund; to make it possible to accomplish its object; to develop Jewish Art and Jewish Craft; and to enlarge and elevate Bezalel to dignity of an Academy of Arts, that it be a place to develop all our latent energy, ability and genius. To increase and enlarge its Museum and the Art Library; and it is to be hoped that our friends will give us an opportunity to open an industrial museum with a business agent in this country to sell our products and to take orders of new temples that are being built and of kindred institutions; which would give the opportunity to thousands of workers and to our artist students to earn a livelihood; and to Bezalel—to continue to develop our original art.
Bezalel
By Israel Zangwill
Bezalel, filled with wisdom to design,
Stones, precious woods, rich-broidered fabrics, gold;
Fed not the few with cunning manifold
Nor empty loveliness; his art divine
Set up a Tabernacle as a sign
Of oneness for a rabble many-souled,
So that each span of desert should behold
A nomad people with a steadfast shrine.
But we, its sons, who wander in the dark,
Footsore, far-scattered, growing less and less,
What whiteness gleams our brotherhood to mark,
What promised land our journey’s end to bless?
We are, unless we build some shrine and ark,
A dying rabble in a wilderness.