i went to the jewish museum yesterday and i saw the most amazing exhibit. a man named mayer kirshenblatt painted his memories of growing up in opatow , poland. his daughter had encouraged him to paint his memories starting in 1967. eventually he realized he needed to depict jewish pre-world war II poland so that people will remember how jewish people lived, not just how they so tragically died. thus he began painting.
the paintings vividly and accurately depict orthodox jewish life in the shtetl. they also have a gentleness to them. mr. kirshenblatt had fond memories of his childhood hometown which are absorbed in the aura of his paintings. the paintings fill several rooms in this exhibit.
there is a video featuring mr. kirshenblatt and his daughter where they discuss the making of the exhibit. it shows them go to opatow where he points out the locations depicted in his paintings . he meets up with elderly poles who remember his family. there was an exhibition of his paintings in poland as well as an opening where many poles attend. its fascinating.
at the end of the exhibit there are blank cards where everyone is encouraged to write a jewish memory from one's own life in the spirit of mayer kirshenblatt's paintings in which he paints his memories. there is a wall where some of these postcards are displayed. i read a few of them and included my own memory with a very inartistic drawing of my own.
4 comments:
Nu, what's the memory?
it wasnt really my memory, it was my grandmother's memory, but i love it, so i wrote it down for all to see.
in the early 1900's , in the midwestern ciy i grew up in, jewish people lived in tenements. no one locked their doors when they left home. times were safer.
on fridays, when people werent home my great-grandmother would sneak in and leave poor jewish people food for shabbos without them ever knowing.
i drew a picture of shabbos candles , a kiddush cup and an unrecognizeable challah.
That is an awesome story!
That sounds like a really nice thing to do, to write down memories. I like that he wanted people to remember what it was like before the war. I think the war is just spoken about too much, that people get sad and depressed, angry and vengeful.
That's really nice what your great grandmother would do, they say that's the best kind of tzedaka you can give.
Post a Comment