The painter and graphic artist Ben Shahn was born in Kovno (Kaunas, Lithuania) and, in 1909, came to New York City, where he received formal training in art. From the late 1920s until about 1950, he worked in a social realist tradition, attacking injustice, prejudice, and brutality. During the Great Depression, he was employed as a photographer by the Farm Security Administration to document the unemployed and the poor, government homestead projects, and rural, small-town life. After 1950, his work became more allegorical and symbolic, and he turned increasingly to producing illustrated Hebrew texts.
This calligraphic print appears in Ben Shahn’s book Alphabet of Creation, based on a tale about how God created the world through the letters of the Hebrew alphabet taken from the Zohar, a thirteenth…
David Tevele Schiff (d. 1791) was the rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London from 1765 until his death. At the time of his appointment, the rabbi of the Great Synagogue was also considered to be the…
The caption on the top image reads: The binding of Isaac [is] today; remember his seed with mercy. The top labels, right to left: Abraham; Isaac; angel; fire; ram. The caption in the middle picture…