The Israeli painter Israel Paldi (b. Feldman) was born in Radynsk, Ukraine. He moved to Palestine in 1909 and enrolled at the Bezalel Academy. From 1911 to 1914, he studied in Munich. At the outbreak of war, he tried to return to Palestine but was unable to and was forced to spend the war years in Turkey. On returning in 1918, he joined the modernist revolt against the more conventional style taught at Bezalel. His paintings of the 1920s featured folkloric motifs and exotic “oriental” figures. In later years he experimented with other techniques—abstraction, collage, and assemblage.
The Jewish Cemetery at Ouderkerk is one of Jacob van Ruisdael’s better-known works. Purchased for use by the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in Amsterdam in 1641, the cemetery holds twenty…
This alms box was affixed to the wall in the Old Synagogue (Alte-Schul, or Stara Bóżnica) of Kraków, located in the Kazimierz district of the city. Because it was in a part of the Polish-Lithuanian…
Oh, Ghingeli, my bleeding heart,
Who is this guy who dreams in snow
And drags his feet like a pair of logs
In the middle of the street at night?
It is the rascal Moyshe-Leyb,
Who will freeze to…