The sculptor Chaim Gross was born in the Carpathian mountains in Austrian Galicia, the son of a lumber merchant. Uprooted by the mayhem of World War I and its aftermath, he settled in New York City in 1921 and pursued the study of sculpting. He became known for direct carving in wood and did not turn to modeling and casting in bronze until the 1950s. He worked in a figurative style. From the 1950s, biblical and Jewish themes dominated his work.
Joseph Barsky’s design for the Herzliya Gymnasium, established in 1905 as the first Hebrew high school in Palestine, was adapted from Charles Chipiez’s and Georges Perrot’s understanding of…
This Torah binder, made for boys at birth and later brought by young men as a symbol of participation in the synagogue, illustrates the fixed nature of traditional gender expectations.
The time has come for me to touch upon the people of the Vilna leadership. When Iosif Mil was away and I joined it, the acknowledged leader was my acquaintance A[rkady] Kremer (“Aleksandr”). His…