Painter Samuel Bak was born in Vilna a few years before the start of World War II. His talent was recognized when he was still a child, and his work was exhibited in the Vilna Ghetto when he was nine years old. He went into hiding with his parents during World War II, but only he and his mother survived. When he immigrated to Israel in 1948, he enrolled at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. Later he lived in Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. Many of Bak’s paintings focus on commemoration and memory of the Holocaust, and he is particularly well known for his surrealistic still lifes. He lives in Massachusetts.
Samuel Bak’s paintings have been described as surrealist, but they also show the influence of Old Masters, such as Albrecht Dürer and Michelangelo. He himself has said, “I don't mind if people call my…
The Führer inquires of General Franco, “Comrade, how did you solve the Jewish problem?”
Franco answers, “I instituted the yellow badge.”
“That’s nothing,” says Hitler. “I imposed tributes…
The Book of Esther (also known as the Scroll [megillah] of Esther) is read out loud on the holiday of Purim. This example of an illustrated scroll from the Netherlands (shown here with a page of…