Bezalel School Emblem

This is the Bezalel emblem designed by E.M. Lillien, featuring the two cherubs said to have adorned the Ark of the Covenant in ancient times. The idea was not only to emphasize the biblical origin of the school's name, but also to establish the institution as a kind of future temple and herald of Zionist redemption. In 1905, the Bezalel school was the most ambitious cultural initiative undertaken by the Zionist movement. The conception of Jewish art promoted by Schatz meshed with the approach of cultural Zionism, which strove to create Jewish visual art in the Land of Israel as a prerequisite for national rehabilitation.

Postcard to Boris Schatz from a Student

Postcard to Boris Schatz in Jerusalem from his student Elieser Jacob in Cairo, Egypt, 1909

Address: "Bezalel" Kunstgewerbeschule - Jerusalem, Palestina

On front of postcard: Photograph of wooden statue, Cheik el-Beled

Hebrew text on back of postcard: "From Elieser Jacob, Cairo"

Text:

To my beloved and esteemed teacher Boris Schatz,

I would like very much, with God’s help, to hear from you, even a word, as it has been so long since I have heard from Jerusalem…Settling in a foreign land and finding work has not been easy. Now I am working for an Italian artist and earn five francs a day, but the expenses are very great. From your student, who hopes you and the whole school are well and looks forward to seeing you in Jerusalem.

Elieser

Elieser Jacob, a former Bezalel student who has found work as an artist in Cairo, writes to Boris Schatz in a tone of great respect and appreciation.

Photograph

Boris Schatz, Ahad Ha'am and Bezalel students in the garden of the Bezalel School, 1912

Bezalel Museum

The National Museum "Bezalel" - Account of its Value, Development and Needs

As early as 1888, Boris Schatz began to write about the importance of collecting Jewish artworks. When he opened his art academy in 1906, he also made plans for workshops and a national museum of Jewish art. The museum was envisaged as a “repository of memory” that would help to cultivate a Jewish collective identity. Schatz put together an eclectic collection that included artworks by European Jewish artists, ancient coins, a display of indigenous butterflies and insects, and even the horse-drawn carriage used by the Moses Montefiore on his visits to the Holy Land. The museum opened to the public in 1912.

In June 1925, the Bezalel Museum was inaugurated as the Jewish National Museum. By this time, the museum contained over 6,000 items, displayed in 16 rooms in a building that was part of the Bezalel School campus.

This typewritten report on the museum, c. 1925, entitled The National Museum “Bezalel,” Account of its Value, Development & Needs, briefly outlines its goals, history and successes in those years.

Elijah's Chair

Elijah's chair 

1916-25 
Bezalel School, Jerusalem
Design: Ze’ev Raban, Israeli, born Poland, 1890–1970 
Walnut wood, leather, woolen carpet, embroidery on silk and velvet, ivory, shell, silver filigree, enamel, and brass, repoussé 
H: 190; W: 91; L: 91 cm 
Purchased through the gift of Yossi Benyaminoff, New York, to American Friends of the Israel Museum 
Accession number: B82.0363

This ceremonial chair, designed for use at circumcisions, was built at the Bezalel School workshops following a design by Ze'ev Raban (1890-1970), who taught at the school. It is made from walnut wood and is embellished with tooled leather, handwoven woolen carpet, embroidery on silk and velvet, ivory, shell, silver filigree, enamel and brass repoussé. Bezalel's motto was "Art is the bud, craft is the fruit. “ The school offered instruction in painting and sculpture, as well as carpet-making, metalworking and woodcarving.

According to Jewish tradition, the Prophet Elijah is present at every circumcision, protecting the baby boy. And so “Elijah’s Chair” is the name given to the seat of the godfather who holds the infant during this ceremony. The Elijah’s Chair seen here is one of the most sumptuous items produced by the Bezalel School founded in Jerusalem in 1906. It took several years to create, with artisans from all of the school’s workshops participating in the project.

Bezalel’s goal was to create an artistic language that would instill national spirit, through the use of Zionist symbols and themes from the Bible and the Land of Israel. In this way, the early Zionists identified with Jewish history as both a religious and a national tradition, and linked the Jewish nation’s future to its past in biblical times.

The chair’s regal decoration features appropriate biblical scenes, emblems of the twelve tribes, and cherubs in classic Bezalel style. It is fitting that a chair/altar designed as a symbol of Jewish national revival should be used for the rite of circumcision, which symbolizes the ongoing covenant between God and the Jews.


From the Israel Museum publications:
Shilo-Cohen, Nurit, ed., Bezalel 1906-1929, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1983 
Zalmona, Yigal, ed., The Israel Museum at 40: Masterworks of Beauty and Sanctity, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2005 

Jerusalem Rebuilt

Ze'ev Raban

Israeli, 1890-1970

Drawing for title page to Schatz's novella Jerusalem Rebuilt, ca. 1924

India ink on paper

36 x 27 cm

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

B04960

After being exiled to Damascus by the Turks during World War I, Schatz eventually made his way to Tiberias. While living on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he wrote a futurist novel,  Jerusalem Rebuilt (Yerushalayim Ha-Benuya) in which Bezalel Ben Uri, the Biblical architect of the Temple (Mishkan) appears at the Bezalel School and takes Schatz on a tour of Israel in the year 2018. This illustration was created by Ze’ev Raban for the title page of the book.

Unknown photographer
A Group of Teachers and Students at Bezalel, Jerusalem
ca. 1926
Photograph
8.2 x 13 cm

Gabriel Talphir Archive, Information Center for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Achadd Haam and Professor [Boris] Schatz in Bezalel-Museum (1911?) 

Israel Musem, Jerusalem

School Fundraising

Letter in French to Baron Edmond de Rothschild, 192

The monetary situation of the school was very bleak and Boris Schatz was desperate to raise funds to keep the school afloat. After receiving a donation from the Baron, he wrote to him explaining the dire straits of the school and its critical need to renew contact with friends and donors to keep the institution alive.

Depression

Self-portrait, ca. 1930

Schatz was reduced to using his own funds to keep the school running, leaving his family poverty-stricken. Schatz was angry and depressed, accusing the Berlin board of the school and the Zionist movement of failing to understand the tremendous significance of Bezalel. He felt that all they cared about was a money-making venture, whereas his vision was of an art school that would revive Jewish culture in the Land of Israel.

In the end, Bezalel was forced to close its doors. In desperation, he flew to the United States in a final attempt to raise funds, hauling a sample of Bezalel products and his own work in a trailer behind his car. In March 1932, he was hospitalized in Denver, Colorado. He wrote to his son: "Write to Mother often, but don't mention that I'll be having an operation [...] We must find the silver lining in this cloud. If people know that I am ill in bed they will help Bezalel. Write to everyone, to the journalists... and then perhaps I'll be helped." On March 23, at the age of 65, Schatz died on the operating table. His body lay in the hospital morgue for six months, with no official organization prepared to pay for the transfer of his remains and burial in Palestine.