Friends Talking about Jimmy

Menahem Shemi

1952

Jimmy’s body was taken to Har Tuv, where the doctor confirmed his death, and from Har Tuv it was taken to the morgue in the hospital in the convent of Abu Gosh. He lay there, covered with a gray blanket and suede desert boots on his feet. His face was calm, proud, and serious. [ . . . ]

On the night when they brought Jimmy’s body to Abu Gosh I was…

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Creator Bio

Menahem Shemi

1897–1951
One of the fathers of Israeli painting, Menahem Shemi (born Schmidt) was born in Bobruisk (now Belarus) and studied art in Odessa. An impoverished student, he arrived in Jerusalem in 1913, enrolling at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. During World War I, he was drafted into the Ottoman army, but he deserted and eventually fought as part of the Jewish Legion. He gradually found his footing as a teacher and artist, mixing Eastern and European styles into his own aesthetic. Shemi’s painting career flourished over the following several decades, even during the war years. Serving in the British army and painting in his free hours, Shemi continued to evolve artistically, using his refined, cosmopolitan style to capture the land, the people, and the spirit of the Yishuv (Jewish settlement) on the eve of the State of Israel’s historic creation. His paintings reflect a desire to create a distinctive Land of Israel style while remaining true to the modernism of the school of Paris.

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