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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, July 16, 1971
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UDO WALD
KEEN EDENFIELD
WASHINGTON PROFILE
by Joseph Polakoff
Faces and Faces: A Talk
With Cartoonist Joseph Ross
Israeli cartoonist Joseph Ross
is now 60. His drawings encom
pass figures of high internation
al importance and scenes of half
the world. But to this Belgian-
born, Dutch-educated illustra
tor of personalities and events
for more than forty years there
is always a fresh topic to in
terpret and portray. On his sec
ond trip to America in four
years, Mr. Ross came to sketch
chief public figures on today’s
stage in both Canada and the
United States for newspapers in
Israel. A free-lance cartoonist,
he at one time contributed to
14 Israeli papers but now his
work mainly goes to Israel’s
most largely circulated after
noon daily, Maariv.
Who, he was asked on his
short stopover in Washington,
is his own most favorite car
toonist of all time. Without a
moment’s hesitation, he replied
David Low, the late New Zea
lander whose cartoons in the
British press are historical trea
sures of the art. To the inevita
ble question, who’s next ,he
named the great 19th century
Frenchman (Henri) Daumier.
Almost in the same breath, he
mentioned the Dutch-Swiss car
toonist in Europe. In the New
World, Herblock of The Wash
ington Post “is still the best, of
course.
Having sketched liter ally
thousands of leaders in politics,
the arts, sciences and other
categories of humanity, Mr.
Ross nevertheless recalls with
amazing acuteness his observa
tions of them. Einstein had “a
very wonderful face,” he said
for example, but it was “very
difficult to capture his expres
sion.” He sketched the scientist
during a meeting on Jewish af
fairs in Berlin in 1929.
“MOST LIVELY FACE”
Among the Israelis that he
has drawn—and he said he has
sketched all of the country’s
leaders—he named the late Jos
eph Sprinzak, first. speaker of
the Knesset — as having the
“most lively face.” He charac
terized Chaim Weizmann’s as
“most interesting” and recalled
that he had sketched Ben-Gur-
ion “many tirhes” since 1929.
Among Americans, he select
ed Averell Harriman at the
time he was Ambasador to Lon
don in 1947 as having “the most
interesting face.” Mr. Ross was
impressed by Mr. Harriman’s
directness of speech in a news
conference. “A very exciting
face,” he said, was that of' 1 Dr.
Robert Oppenheimer, the late
atomic scientist. Another atomic
scientist, Edward Teller, has a
“wonderful, lively face,” he
added. The late Rabbi Stephen
Wise’s was “very wonderful.”
He had especially friendly
words for Ralph Bunche, whom
he “likes very much” and des
cribed as having an “intelligent
face.”
President Nixon, Pope Paul,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Cabinet min
isters, U. S. Senators, virtually
all Jewish leaders including the
late Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver
are in his sketchbooks. Mr.
Ross’ voice seemed to indicate a
special pride when he noted that
in his category of musicians he
has sketches of Arturo- Toscan
ini, Pablo Casals, Leonard Bern
stein, Arthur Rubenstein, and
David Oistrakh.
Nearly all of the personalities
have signed his drawings of
them, he said, His political car
toons were drawn with English
or Hebrew captions. He him
self speaks Hebrew, English,
French and Dutch.
TEST OF A CARTOON
“A cartoon of a personality,”
Mr. Ross said, “should show the
character of the individual. It
should not- be merely a carica
ture; not just make a man with
a long nose or a long neck.”
“In the political cartoon,” he
said, “there is a mathematical
formula. It reduces a situation
to its simplest form to bring
the idea to the people. The car
toon itself should express an
entire idea without words.” He
illustrated his concept by re
calling a political cartoon during
a financial crisis in which he
showed a bearer of a heavy
cross captioned “Via Dollarosa”
in the cartoonist’s artful twist
of “Via Dolorosa.”
Mr. Ross, born in Antwerp,
was two years old when his
parents moved to Amsterdam.
His mother’s forbears had fled
to Holland from 15th Century
Spain. His father, whose fam
ily was from Germany, was a
publicist. An accident of resi
dence helped him learn sketch
ing. In Amsterdam, the family
home was on one side of the
Rykesmuseum and his school on
the other. Since he passed the
famous galleries daily, he re
ceived permission at the age of
11 to sketch in them. In 1930,
he went to Berlin to study med
icine. For three years he earned
his way by publishing cartoons
of his professors. In 1933—on
the day of the Nazi boycott
of Jewish-owned business places
in Germany—he left Berlin and
returned to Holland. Before that
day, science was his profession
and cartooning his hobby. The
following day, they were just
the opposite. Returning to Am
sterdam, he began cartooning
for Dutch and Belgian papers.
In 1935, he saw Israel as a
visitor. The following year he
made his home in' what was
then Palestine and introduced
cartoons into the Hebrew
language newspapers.
Mr. Ross, a friendly, blue-
eyed, lean six-footer with a
notably sensitive face, indicated
warm regard for British ways
by an incident in 1947 in Lon
don. He was drawing in the
House of Commons when he
was told sketching there was
forbidden and directed to stop.
He complained to the sergeant-
at-arms that every journalist in
the Commons makes notes on
paper;; as a cartoonist sketching
was his way of taking notes.
“The sergeant typically in the
spirit of British fair play im
mediately agreed,” Mr. Ross
said. “He allowed me to con
tinue with my drawings.”
Later, in the House of Lords,
the guardian of the press sec
tion forbid him to draw, too.
“No, my dear fellow, you can
not draw here," Mr. Ross
responded that he had received
permission to draw in Com
mons. After consulting with the
sergeant in the House, the
Lords’ guardian also gave per
mission. Thus, Mr. Ross be
came what he understands to be
the first cartoonist authorized
to sketch in both houses of
Parliament.
Mr. Ross was accompanied on
his current trip by his wife,
Regina, a Belgian. They have
two sons and a daughter in Is
rael.
Copyright 1971, JTA
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