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Friday, September 30, 1966
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Pip tff
The Hebrew Alphabet
As An Art Form
By HENRY W. LEVY
(A Seven Arts Feature)
Until you visit an exhibit of
the paintings of a young Amer
ican artist who calls himself by
his Hebrew name, “Zvi,” you’ll
never realize the beauties or the
endless variations of the Hebrew
alphabet. You could have seen
his exhibition last Spring at the
Herzl Gallery in the Jewish
Agency Building, or you can
plan to see it early next year
(beginning January 16th) at
Madison Avenue’s Bodley Gal
lery where sixty of his paintings
will be on display.
Madison Avenue, of course,
means that Zvi has arrived. But
you can see it for yourself when
you view his unique semi-ab
stractions, a graceful bird, for in
stance, emerging from the letter
“yud,” a whole animal kingdom
derived from a visual extension
of three or four Hebrew letters.
You wonder about the artist’s
concern with the Hebrew alpha
bet, with his use of letters and
Hebrew words as the origin for
his art. Is this merely an affec
tation, or does it have a deep
meaning?
“Every artist,’’ Zvi tells you,
“needs a take-off point for his
art. Traditionally it is landscape,
or a portrait. But with me, it’s
the Hebrew alphabet, the thing
I know best. It’s the point of
departure for my art that al
lows me to put my personality
into what I do on canvas.
“I use the Hebrew alphabet as
a form, as a phantasy form. My
imagination stems from the rec
ognizable typographical forms of
the Hebrew letters — and what
emerges may possibly be called
abstract calligraphy.”
Until you go into Zvi’s past,
explore his biography, it all
sounds a bit strained. But when
you learn that he attended the
Williamsburgh Torah Vodaath
until he was seventeen years old,
that his parents dreamed that he
would become a rabbi, you real
ize that his art expression as an
adult is a sublimation of his
youthful past.
In what was probably a revolt
from his religious studies, Zvi
entered the Los Angeles State
College in California, got as far
away as possible from Williams
burgh. Then he took to wander
ing, a sort of Jewish vagabond
earning a living with odd jobs
picked up on the road. During
these years he wrote poetry,
avant garde, of course. And then
came Korea. It was during his
service in the Far East that he
became intrigued with Oriental
art, being particularly impressed
with its subtle simplicity. And
from this emerged the artist of
today, a man inspired by his
Jewish past and influenced by
the Oriental delicacy of line.
His choice of titles indicate the
Hebraic background of his work:
“The 12 Tribes Crossing the Jor
dan,” “The Ark,” “Song of Sol
omon,” “The Tablets,” “The
Shield of David,” “Yisrael,” “Jer
icho,” "Exodus: Minyon by
Minyon,’ “The Flood,” “Hebraic
Convert To Judaism
faith efforts now predicated on
the knowledge of Christians that
we don’t seek to recruit them for
Judaism. Also I haven’t met a
person yet who has embraced
Judaism as such without the
desire to embrace a Jew first. I
approve of the feeling of such
people that one home Is big
enough for only one faith.
Nonetheless, the enrichment of
Jewish life through converts is
extraordinary. In every congre
gation of this country, Reform,
Conservative and Orthodox there
are converts who have fallen in
love with Judaism after falling in
love with a Jewish partner. Some
of them are leaders of the shul;
in one congregation two Sister
hood presidents in a row were
onetime Christians.
Indeed, one of the poignant
segments of the Eichhorn book
(published by Ktav) is a series
of statements by such converts.
One of them, Mrs. Frances Price,
was president of her Sisterhood
in a Conservative shul. Writes
Mrs. Price, of Camden, New
Jersey: “How can I help but raise
my head in pride as I pass by
the mezuza on my door-post and
enter the warmth and beauty of
my Jewish home where lives my
Jewish family?”
Yes, we should fight to hold
on to each Jew we have, but let
us not ignore the stirring story
of the modem Ruths who have
said not ey-ey-ey, but aye, to Ju
daism.
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By DR. SAMUEL SILVER
While lamenting the mounting
rate of intermarriage, we should
take cognizance of the fact that
many people are turning Jewish
these days.
It is natun
that in a sociel
where people ai
still not grante
equality, the ml
nority grou
should seek e<
cape.
But what aboi
the thousands c
people, mostly girls, who become
Jewish each year, mostly because
of their marriage to Jews?
It is one of the greatest untold
sagas of American Jewish life.
Part of that saga is revealed in
a new book, "Conversion to Ju
daism,” edited by Rabbi Max
Eichhorn, with articles by him
and Rabbis Albert S. Goldstein,
Sidney B. Hoenig, David J. Sel-
igson, Abraham Shusterman,
Bernard Bamberger, Samuel
Teitelbaum and Psychiatrist Dr.
Abraham N. Franzblau. Subtitle
of the book is: A History and an
Analysis.”
Rabbi Eichhorn (whose 9 to 5
task is at the Jewish Welfare
Board, where he serves with Rab
bi Aryeh Lev as liaison between
American Jewry and the military
chaplaincy) seems to feel that it's
time for us actually to go in for
proselytism.
I disagree with that because
I think it would harm our inter-
Concept” and otners. He works
not only in oil, but he does sculp
ture and works in acrylic poly
mer, on canvas or on wood. All
of his work has a three-dimen
sional character and in his com
bination of painting and sculp
ture it is actjally three-dimen
sional. He believes the future di
rection of art lies in the marri
age of painting with sculpture,
tending towards architecture.
What gives Zvi’s work a char
acter of his own, what he calls
his “trade-mark,” is his concen
tration on Hebraic themes and his
use of the alphabet in creating
what the critic of “Art News”
has called “big, bright, semi-ab
stract, semi-typographical paint
ings” that through the dynamics
of form, color, composition and
spatial structure express so beau
tifully the Jewish heritage and
tradition.
With exhibitions and the dis
play of his work at the Guggen
heim Museum, Whitney Museum,
Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Muse
um, Prix de Paris Foundation,
Palais de la Scala in Monaco and
others, Zvi has come a long way
since he embarked some few
years ago on his self-taught art
career. It may well be that as more and more on display In
his artistic reputation grows, you museums and art salons through-
will see the Hebrew alphabet out the world.
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