Modern Ritual: From Bezalel to Wolpert
From its founding in 1906 the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts forged a national style and pioneered modernist design in Jewish Ceremonial Art.
The Bezalel School
Established in Jerusalem by Boris Schatz (1866-1932) in 1906, the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts had among its goals to “develop visual expressions towards national and spiritual independence.” Schatz was born in Lithuania and had academic training as a painter and sculptor in Paris before meeting Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, in 1903. He sought to "create a synthesis between European artistic traditions and Jewish design traditions of the East and West and to integrate these with the local cultures of the Land of Israel.” This lamp with art nouveau ornamentation includes the inscription, "These lights are holy." In 1908 the School moved to new buildings allowing it to expand its activities.
Hanukkah Lamp (1914-29) by Sharar Cooperative, Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Reminiscent of Islamic architecture, the eight arches on the backplate of this lamp echo the number of candle holders. The lamp, which also has features of European art nouveau, was designed by the Sharar Cooperative, one of the workshops operated in association with Bezalel.
Hanukkah Lamp (ca. 1920) by Sharar Cooperative, Bezalel School, after a design by Ze'ev RabanDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
This lamp was designed by Ze'ev Raban (1890-1970), born Wolf Rawicki in Lodz, Poland. Raban trained at the School of Applied Art in Munich as well as in Paris and Brussels and emigrated to Palestine in 1912. Beginning in 1914 his designs could be found on many Bezalel creations.
The backplate features two lions crouching above stylized wings that symbolize the angels that guard the Ark of the Covenant, a motif found in other Bezalel works.
Hanukkah Lamp (ca. 1920-1929) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Here the backplate features Judah Maccabee directing the purification of the Temple following the victory over the Seleucids. The entire piece is framed by a border of interlocking circles in an art nouveau design.
Kiddush Cup Kiddush Cup (1909-1929) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
This cup is an example of Damascene work with inlaid metals in intricately woven patterns. It features Hebrew script, which is a prominent decorative element of Bezalel objects, with arabesque curves and flourishes.
Bible Cover (1919) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Both sides of this Bible cover are decorated with acid-etched designs including six-pointed stars and seven-branched menorahs, as well as filigree and semi-precious stones.
Bible Cover (back) (1919) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
The stylized lettering Bezalel Jerusalem is etched into a circle contributing to the organic art nouveau character of the overall design. It melds traditional craft with modern design.
Round Lidded Box Round Lidded Box (1912-15) by Reuven Leaf (Lifshitz)Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Secular Objects at Bezalel
The Bezalel School created secular as well as religious items. These included souvenirs, jewelry, vessels, carpets and other types of objects for personal and domestic use. Whether secular or ceremonial, they were decorated with themes connected to the Land of Israel and featured verses from the Bible. Bezalel artists combined Eastern and Western motifs as well as indigenous materials and craft skills. Included on this lidded box, which could have been used for powder, are the phrases: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" and "If not now, when?" (Ethics of the Fathers 1:14).
The lid includes lines from Psalm 137: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither; Let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you." The spies carrying grapes symbolize abundance and prosperity.
Picture Frame (ca. 1920) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
The brass frame is etched with leaves and vines, clusters of grapes and peacocks, as well as Bezalel and Jerusalem in stylized Hebrew characters.
A frequent motif on its products, the School's buildings with their easily recognizable crenellated towers behind a stone wall are depicted on an applied silver emblem on the frame.
Plate (1909-1929) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
This Damascene-work plate features a five-branched menorah and inscriptions of biblical verses in delicately inlaid silver. At the bottom center of the inner circle, Bezalel is written in stylized Hebrew characters.
The plate also features the Bezalel School's familiar buildings which originate from the 1880s.
Filigree Vase (ca. 1910) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Bezalel’s silver department, founded in 1908, offered a leading role to the Jerusalem Yemenite community, which had a long tradition in this craft in the southern Arabian peninsula.
Ring and Brooch (ca. 1920s) by Bezalel SchoolDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
This ring and brooch set were acquired in Jerusalem probably in the mid-1920s by a young American woman on a visit to Palestine.
Ludwig Wolpert
Financial difficulties caused the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts to close in 1929. When it reopened in 1935 as the New Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, its focus shifted to a modernist aesthetic, such as that represented by Ludwig Yehuda Wolpert (1900-1981). A silversmith, he trained in Frankfurt-am-Main and had been influenced by the Bauhaus, an arts and crafts school founded in Germany in 1919. He taught at Bezalel after immigrating to Jerusalem from Berlin in 1933 and radically transformed its style, infusing it with the pared down streamlined functionality of the Bauhaus.
Hanukkah Lamp (ca. 1970s) by Ludwig Yehuda WolpertDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
This lamp was designed in 1939 and manufactured in the 1970s, many years after Wolpert moved to New York to head the Tobe Pascher Workshop at the Jewish Museum in 1956.
Lions, a common ornamental motif on Hanukkah lamps, are integral to Wolpert's design of this modern lamp functioning as part of its structural support to connect the oil holders to the base.
The Hebrew calligraphy at the top of this lamp is integrated into the overall design. The phrase, "It is fitting to praise you," is from "Rock of Ages" (Ma'oz Tzur), a liturgical poem sung on Hanukkah.
Hanukkah Lamp (before 1953) by Ludwig Yehuda WolpertDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
This lamp was designed by Wolpert in Israel. Melding art and science, its glass oil containers come from the science laboratory of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
The Hebrew phrase "It is desirable to praise you" is integral to the design of this lamp expressing the sacred and spiritual power of the Hebrew alphabet.
Hanukkah Lamp (ca. 1958) by Ludwig Yehuda WolpertDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Free of unnecessary ornamentation, this modern lamp is pared down to essentials, with curving branches that interlace and form legs that, along with the center candle holder, the shamash, give it stability.
Etrog Container (ca. 1960) by Ludwig Yehuda WolpertDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
During Sukkot, a fall agricultural festival, observant Jews recite blessings over the “four species” (palm branch, myrtle branch, willow branch and citron, or etrog). This etrog container is inscribed: "fruit of the citrus tree."
Seder Plate (ca. 1973, manufactured 1975) by Chava Wolpert RichardDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Wolpert's daughter, Chava Wolpert Richard (1933-2015), studied at the Bezalel Academy beginning in 1954 and came to the United States after her father. She worked with him at the Tobe Pascher Workshop at the Jewish Museum in New York until he died in 1981.
Memorial Light Memorial Light (ca. 1980) by Chava Wolpert RichardDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Wolpert Richard designed this memorial light after the death of her husband. It is hand painted and lettered with the phrase, “The lamp of the Lord is the spirit of man.”
Mezuzah (ca. 1958) by Ludwig Yehuda WolpertDerfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection
Contemporary Jewish ceremonial art up to today is marked by the innovative modernist design aesthetic that was transmitted from the Bauhaus to Bezalel and beyond to the United States by the Wolperts, their students and the teachers that succeeded them.
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
References
Benjamin, Chaya. EARLY ISRAELI ARTS AND CRAFTS: BEZALEL TREASURES FROM THE ALAN B. SLIFKA COLLECTION IN THE ISRAEL MUSEUM. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2008.
Braunstein, Susan. FIVE CENTURIES OF HANUKKAH LAMPS FROM THE JEWISH MUSEUM. A CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ. New York: The Jewish Museum and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
The Jewish Museum. "Chava Wolpert Richard, 1933-2015." https://stories.thejewishmuseum.org/chava-wolpert-richard-1933-2015-bff2035da9af
