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Page Six
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, Oct. 30, 1970
A Woman and Religious Art
By JOSEPH POLAKOFF
If the "Had-Ba-Kah” by Sel
ma Hurwitz wins the praise of
critics at her month-long show
ing at Brandeis University that
it has received in the Baltimore-
Washington area then it prob
ably can be said with ample
evidence that she has arrived as
a leading contributor to con
temporary Jewish religious art.
Under the sponsorship of the
Jewish Historical Society at
Waltham, Mass., 25 of the 94
works she has completed in six
years will be exhibited this
month. This will be the first
time her unique art form will
have been shown outside of the
local area.
Mrs. Hurwitz, who lives in the
Washington suburb of Potomac,
Maryland, combines a singular
method of graphic portrayal
with a penetrating interpreta
tion of Biblical commentary and
description.
She herself gave the name
“Had-Ba-Ka” (Hebrew for glu
ing) to her method since that
is exactly what she does—glue
yards of gold, silver and color
ed threads to a monochromatic
velour. From this emerges vivid
scenes in sizes ranging from 40
by 60 inches in her “Rachel
Weeps No More” to small sket
ches of heads of the prophets.
“A simple and radiant majesty
glows deeply throughout her
work,” the September issue of
the B’nai B’rith’s National Jew
ish Monthly stated. “It is, in a
most affecting way, a visual
counterpart of the fervor,
strength and purity of the Kings
of the Old Testament.”
"If it is her technical mastery
that most people remark on at
first,” the National Jewish
Monthly observed, “they are
soon captured by the infusion of
spiritual ardor and love for Ju
daism” which “gives it lasting
meaning.”
The Washington Evening
Star’s nationally known art
critic, Frank Getlein, has writ
ten:
“In an age when religion and
art appear finally to have gone
their separate ways after so
many centuries of seemingly in
extricable relationships, it is
refreshing to see the direct, sim
ple and strong representations,
of Biblical figures by Selma
Hurwitz.”
“At first glance, her pictures
strike the eye as drawings, but
they are more than that,” Mr.
Getlain added. “With drawing as
a base, the procedure begins
with the selection and laying out
of the right textures and colors
of background and delineating
lines, a task of great delicacy
because the surface of the un
derlying velour retains the mark
of any pressure. There is a pre
mium to be right the first time,
since alterations or repairs can
only be minimal. Then comes the
Had-Ba-Kah proper, followed by
framing.”
A single work may take four
or five months to complete and
the research and thought that
go into it sometimes longer, Mrs.
Hurwitz says.
In the brochure issued for her
showing at the Klutznick Ex
hibit Hall at the_ B’nai B’rith
Building in Washington last Oct
ober, Mrs. Ruth M. Bernstein of
the Baltimore Hebrew Congre
gation pointed out:
“While Mrs. Hurwitz’ pictures
are basically representational,
they are definitely abstractions
from the conventional Bible
story. Personal emotions, imag
inative ideas, delicacy plus
strength have transformed
them.”
The National Jewish Monthly
stated she has the “perfection
ist’s skill of a medieval minia
turist” and Mr. Getlain refers
to her work as “akin to the tra
ditional discipline of the Jewish
scripture student: the tireless
meditation on a single point of
doctrine, a line of poetry, the act
of a hero, the decision of a
judge.”
Mrs. Hurwitz is the mother of
three sons of bar mitzva age
who she says are all getting “a
good Jewish education.” She
credits her husband, Harold, a
physical chemist at the U.S.
Naval Ordinance Laboratory
here, with providing inspira
tion and with encouraging her in
the research for her art. Mr.
Hurwitz’ father, Joseph Hur
witz, was executive director of
the B’nai Israel Synagogue in
Washington.
Mr. and Mrs. Hurwitz main
tain a kosher home in Potomac
and are affiliated with the Con
servative B’nai Israel congrega
tion in Washington. Mrs. Hur
witz studied at Syracuse and
American Universities but she is
a self-taught artist. She was
born in Red Bank, N.J., a daugh
ter of the late Samuel and An
nie Zaretski Walters. Her father
had emigrated from Warsaw and
her mother from Vilna.
About six years ago, Mrs.
Hurwitz showed her first work
to a Washington Hebrew school
principal, Mrs. Roberta Milgram,
now of Philadelphia, and she en
couraged the artist to do a Bib
lical study. Mrs. Milgram, upon
seeing her first Biblical effort,
commissioned her to do another
and pointed out to her the tre
mendous need for Biblical inter
pretation.
Mrs. Hurwitz believes she is
alone in this art form. It is not
to be confused with embroider
ing. In fact, it was from watch
ing her late mother embroider
ing a yarmulka that she derived
the idea of gluing the threads.
While nearly all of her works
have been purchased by collec
tors, Mrs. Hurwitz will not part
with some of them. Most of the
specimens for the Boston exhibit
she has had to borrow from
purchasers. From her own col
lection will come a magnificent
“Aaron, the High Priest,” and a
poignant “Rachel Weeps No
More.”
For “Aaron,” she followed
with utmost pains the descrip
tion in Exodus and even collab
orated with a lapidary to be cer-
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tain of the color of the stones
that appeared in Aaron’s breast
plate.
For Rachel, the Hurwitz de
piction shows Jacob’s wife ap
pearing over her Tomb with
arms outstretched—a welcome to
modern Jewry to Israel. There is
no lamentation by Rachel; with
the rebirth of Israel, Rachel
needs no longer to weep for her
children, scattered as they had
been in all parts of the world
without a homeland.
“I am really more concerned
with the Jewish feeling I am
able to put into my work than
I am with its technical detail,
says Mrs. Hurwitz. Even a short
conversation with her is con
vincing of her ardor to help
Jews, particularly children, to
find the Bible come alive for
them by means of her art.
“Concentrated meditation,” Mr.
Getlein said of Mrs. Hurwitz,
“always did bring the scriptural
moment to new life in the mind
and heart engaged in the task”
and “for the truly religious ar
tist, as she is, no greater goal
can be attempted.”
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