Paul Paun was a Romanian visual artist and poet, involved with the surrealism movement of the 1930s. Born Zaharia Herscovici, Paun adopted his pseudonym in high school. He was active in the avant-garde art scene from his midteens, cofounding the Bucharest Surrealist group in 1939; he exhibited with them in the 1940s. Alongside his creative activities, Paun was a practicing doctor. He was forced to work in labor camps for Russian prisoners of war. From 1948 to 1961, Paun struggled to leave Romania for Israel, finally moving to Haifa. In Israel, Paun continued practicing medicine and honing his skills as a draftsman.
Another week had passed. The two men had just gone off together. With something of an annoyed laugh, his mother went to the door and stood fingering the catch of the lock. Finally she lifted it…
Though this photograph of Orthodox Jews at the East River has long been captioned as having been taken on Yom Kippur, it is much more likely that it was taken on the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah…
Who is to blame that I don’t see your tree,
Garden in snow, my garden in snow.
Who is to blame that I don’t see your tree—
When a woman goes out for a stroll in your snow,
Her bosom rising and…