Jacob Steinhardt

Born in Zerkow, Germany (today, Żerków, Poland), the painter and woodcut artist Jacob (Jakob) Steinhardt studied in Berlin before World War I and was much influenced by the Expressionist movement. As a soldier in the German army during the war, he served in the Lithuanian region and Poland, where his encounter with traditional East European Jewish society left a lasting impression on him and his work. In 1933, he and his wife fled Berlin and settled in Jerusalem. In 1948, Steinhardt was appointed chair of the Graphics Department at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, and from 1954 to 1957, served as the Bezalel School’s director. He is best known for his woodcuts of biblical and Jewish figures.