Two Jews

The Israeli painter Moshe Castel was born into a Sephardic family in Jerusalem that had lived in the Land of Israel for centuries. He studied at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts from 1922 to 1925 and then in Paris, where he lived from 1927 to 1940. With the Nazi conquest of France, he returned home. After the war he divided his time between Paris and Safed. Although the style in which he worked changed dramatically over his career, he continued to paint Jewish and Israeli subjects.