The son of a prosperous German Jewish wool merchant who had settled in Bradford, England, the painter William Rothenstein studied in London and Paris. He was known especially for his portraits of famous men, over two hundred of which are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and for his work as an official war artist in both world wars. At the turn of the century, he produced an important group of paintings of East End immigrant synagogue life, but, aside from his portraits of contemporary Jews (such as that of the graphic designer and lithographer Barnett Freedman), he never returned to Jewish subjects in later decades.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget itself.
Give us the land we have wandered in time
Through foreign parts, far, so far and then,
Every year at Passover we repeat the line
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Alfred Bernheim’s intimate portrait of Hannah Arendt portrays her as casual and self-confident, lounging on a couch and smoking a cigarette. Arendt was one of the most famous intellectuals of the…
Not fire and sun—but our blood will redden, Oh Zion, your mountains—
Right after disembarking and finishing my business with the numruk [custom house], I hurried to Petah Tikva. My friends implored…