EXHIBITION OF 18 ISRAELI ARTISTS
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
Curator – Dr. Alek D. Epstein
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 - Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Moshe Fishzon (1912–1982) – Shabbat Candles
Valery Kurov – Homage to Chagall
Zeev Kun (1930–2024) – In Their Blessed Memory
Zeev Kun (1930–2024) – Staircase
Moshe Fishzon (1912–1982) – Jewish Refugees
David Labkovski (1906–1991) – Panic
Rivka Chwoles Lichtenfeld (1923–2017) – Memories of Jewish Vilnius
Rivka Chwoles Lichtenfeld (1923–2017) – Memories of Jewish Vilnius
Haim Aronstam (1918–2002) – Shabbat Candles Next to an Open Prayer Book, 1976
Valery Kurov – Roots, 1998
Naftali Bezem (1924–2018) – The Inseparables
Rafael Chwoles (1913–2002) – Still Life with Candle and Book, 1976
Hagai Sasson,
Director-General of the Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim
The exhibition opening at the Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim on April 23, 2025 presents the Israeli public with the work of eighteen artists who miraculously survived World War II and the Holocaust. More than fifty paintings and graphic works are being exhibited in two halls. The first of these, which includes the pieces that focus on the world of East European Jewry before and during the Holocaust, has been named The Destroyed World; the second, which houses the paintings that exude life and love, as well as those that depict landscapes of the State of Israel, has been dubbed The Rebirth. The fates of all the artists featured here have been intertwined with the Jewish State, which was reestablished in 1948. This is true even of Zoltan Perlmutter, David Peretz, Rafael Chwoles, and Pinchas Shaar, who spent the last years of their lives in other countries; and of Shmuel Bak, who currently resides in the USA. All these individuals regarded Israel as their Country; all of them lived, worked, and took part in exhibitions here – even though by no means all of them have won the recognition that was their due.
The life stories of these artists are very diverse. They were born in different countries: Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and the Soviet Union. At the time of the outbreak of the most terrible war in human history, some of them were adults, a few having already established families of their own and become parents, while others were still children. These eighteen individuals have only one thing in common: All of them were supposed to die, through no fault of their own, but solely because of their Jewish origin, which was deemed a “mark of Cain” by the Nazi regime. It was for this reason that the Nazis murdered several million people in the European countries they had occupied – both at the six extermination camps set up in Polish territory, and at many others sites, in various circumstances. The monstrous internecine war of 1939–1945 resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people. However, the Jewish victims of that period were in a category all their own – because, to be killed, they did not have to serve in an enemy army, or stand in the way of some military force; they were brutally exterminated “simply” for being Jews.
The eighteen artists whose works are being exhibited here – or, rather, the eighteen persons to whom this exhibition is dedicated – were supposed to share the fate of their six million brethren, and perish. The survival of each of them constitutes a miracle, the reasons for which were different in each particular case, but which always ran counter to the bloody logic of history. Still, all these individuals managed to save themselves and survive; and, for many decades afterward, they remained as witnesses to the Nazi atrocities, about which they could tell a great deal. However, they did not confine themselves to the role of witnesses, did not become fixated on the past – but chose one of the most life-affirming professions, that of artist. True, a great many painters (in the past and, often, even today) have to live in poverty – yet they have something that most of their contemporaries lack: a chance to achieve immortality.
I wholeheartedly invite you to visit this exhibition – not only to honor the memory of these outstanding masters, but also to enjoy their marvelous paintings, which will doubtless be etched in your memory for a long time.
***
Sergei Boguslavsky and Dmitry Etkin, Co-Founders
of The Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Plastic Arts
The Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Plastic Arts is proud to extend its support to the present exhibition at the Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim, showcasing the works of splendid painters who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Europe, but who remained unbroken, keeping their artistic spirit alive, and went on to create paintings of significance to their contemporaries and descendants.
We began our archival and scholarly work in this area nearly a decade ago, in 2016; in 2018–2019, two fundamental books were published under our auspices and with our support. They were authored by Alek D. Epstein – who, several years later, became curator of the Castel Museum of Art where this exhibition is opening. We regard it as the continuation of the work that we have been carrying on – albeit on a new level. Each illustrated book, each art album, are a virtual exhibition of sorts, and the reader can easily visualize the reproduced works on the museum walls; now, finally, there is no need to use one’s imagination, since these works, by artists who survived the Holocaust, and who lived much of their lives in Israel, are exhibited on the walls of one of the country’s most impressive museums, in all their splendor. On the one hand, of course, we deeply regret the fact that most of these artists passed away, and the opening ceremony takes place in their absence; when we and Alek began this project, Motke Blum, Rivka Chwoles-Lichtenfeld, and (last but not least) Zeev Kun, who welcomed us so warmly in his home, were still among the living, but all of them have passed away by now. On the other hand, we rejoice at the knowledge that their art has outlived them, and that it continues to inspire ever new generations of museum visitors.
The Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Plastic Arts, reestablished a hundred years after its dissolution, values the continuity of tradition, started by its founders, great masters of Jewish art, such as Marc Chagall, Nathan Altman, Boris Anisfeld, and others – and today, it considers as its key mission to “express the national self-consciousness through artistic forms that resonate with the spirit of our time”.
We are grateful to the Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim, to its director-general, Hagai Sasson, and to its curator, Alek D. Epstein, for presenting this undoubtedly significant stratum of art – created by natives of Eastern Europe who have made a great contribution to Israeli painting – to the present-day Israeli public as a unified artistic phenomenon. Jewish painters, no matter where they lived or worked, usually remained part of a single artistic space, which ought to be recognized, studied, and researched as such. We are convinced that both the books we have published and this catalogue are important elements in this process, which must certainly be continued. For this reason, we regard the present exhibition not as the concluding chapter of our partnership with Alek and the Moshe Castel Museum, but as yet another milestone in this important and noble journey.
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Yury E. Giverts,
A delegate to the 37th and 38th Zionist Congresses
The Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim is a truly unique place. Located a few kilometers from the eternal and indivisible capital of the State of Israel – in a small town established for the protection of this capital, – it is much more than a mere museum. While the regions of Judea and Samaria, which are of profound importance for Jewish national and religious history, have been indissolubly bound to the State of Israel for nearly six decades, since June 1967, and are now home to more than half a million Israeli citizens, this museum is the only center of the fine arts anywhere in Judea and Samaria. It was not created on the initiative of any state institution; rather, its emergence is the result of the prophetic vision of the outstanding artist Moshe Castel, the unmatched persistence of his widow Bilha Castel, and the efforts of the Ma’ale Adumim Municipality, all of whom worked hard to create this “temple of the arts,” while many others doubted whether it would be of interest to anyone. Nowadays, when hundreds of visitors flock to the numerous events organized every month by the Museum’s director-general, Hagai Sasson, and its curator, Alek D. Epstein, these doubts seem quite absurd and out of place. Still, we owe an immense debt of gratitude to those who perceived this potential more than thirty years ago, when the work of creating the Museum was only just beginning.
Over the past two years, the Museum has firmly attained the status of one of the most important artistic institutions in Israel. Both the renewed permanent exhibition and the long line of first-rate temporary exhibitions have kept the Castel Museum in the eye of the leading media outlets, including the Jerusalem Post and Jerusalem Report, which I carefully monitor. However, the single most valuable aspect of the Museum may be the clearly articulated artistic and civic stance of its leaders, who envision it not as a mere art gallery (of which there are many), but as a nationally oriented center of the best visual art created in the Land of Israel over the past century. I admire this approach, which seems truly dissident in the world of Israeli art, and endorse it wholeheartedly.
It is this vision that has inspired the new exhibition, and I feel privileged to support the publication of its catalogue. My parents, Sofia Yakovlevna (1926–2010) and Yefim Lvovich (1930–2021), belonged to that group of Jews who miraculously avoided death in the years of World War II and the Holocaust; I would repeatedly hear their stories of that terrible time. Among the six million Jewish victims, there were many artists, including some truly outstanding painters. And yet, some artistically gifted individuals, against all odds, were able to survive – in the extremely apt title of the present exhibition, “Survive, in Order to Create.” Despite all reasonable expectations, the Israeli cultural mainstream gave a cold shoulder to these artists; many of them, having lived in Israel for decades, did not receive nearly as much attention as they deserved. The new exhibition at the Moshe Castel Museum of Art brings back from oblivion the names and artworks of eighteen of them, and I am deeply excited to take part in such an important initiative.
After October 7, 2023, the vow of “Never again!” – referring to the murder of unarmed and innocent Jews – has lost much of its potency, and we still have to come to grips with these changes and imbue this motto with new meaning, one that we would be able to sincerely believe. The Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria – and, even more so, the ongoing development of a multifaceted cultural life in these regions – is one of the most important factors shielding the Jewish State and its inhabitants from a recurrence of the most terrible chapter of our national history; it is this connection between the past and the present that largely explains the importance of this exhibition. I offer heartfelt thanks to its initiator and curator, Dr. Alek D. Epstein; to the entire staff of the Moshe Castel Museum, and to the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Plastic Arts, under whose auspices Dr. Epstein began to work on this project already about a decade ago; the present exhibition is, therefore, the crowning achievement of this long labor. I hope that thousands of Israelis, and at least a few foreign tourists, will visit this exhibition – and that it will make them think of the past and the present. These thoughts will not be easy ones; but, for the sake of our collective present and future, we must all think long and hard about the issues and concerns raised by the exhibited artworks – to bring about the day when we can all be certain that such atrocities will never happen again!
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Ilya Kushnirskiy
CEO, Fine Art Shippers
The State of Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948 – exactly three years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust. Holocaust survivors played a crucial role in shaping Israeli statehood, contributing to nearly every aspect of community, economic, and cultural life. However, in the face of the many wars Israel had to fight for its own survival, commemorating the Holocaust – the most horrific genocide in human history—was not an immediate priority of the newly created Jewish state.
It took five years for the Israeli Parliament to pass the first law dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, leading to the establishment of the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem in 1953. Since then, numerous initiatives have been launched to commemorate Holocaust victims within Israeli law and collective memory. Yet, those who survived have historically received far less recognition. The six million murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern and Central Europe became a central part of Israel’s national ethos, while those who survived were expected to move forward, build new lives, and integrate into Israeli society as ‘regular citizens’. For many years, little public attention was given to their personal traumas and suffering. Simply having survived was often seen as an accomplishment in itself, rather than as a continuing struggle with the weight of their experiences.
The same situation extends into the world of art and culture. To the best of my knowledge, Israel has three permanent art collections dedicated to artists who either perished in the Holocaust or continued creating amidst the horrors of the ghettos and death camps. The first is housed in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the second in the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum at the Lohamei HaGeta’ot Kibbutz, and the third, a collection gifted to Israel by Swiss collector Oscar Ghez, is held at the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa (currently not on display). Remarkably, no museum in Israel has ever dedicated a permanent collection to artists who survived the Holocaust and later settled in Israel, despite their significant contributions to Israeli culture.
For this reason, the exhibition “Survive, in Order to Create” at the Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim is of unique importance. As the CEO of Fine Art Shippers, I am deeply honored to contribute to this exhibition and its catalog. Curated by Dr. Alek D. Epstein, this exhibition brings together the works of eighteen artists who survived the genocide of World War II and continued to create in the State of Israel. Some of them arrived in the late 1940s, while others immigrated decades later, but for all of them, Israel became a defining part of their identity and creative expression. Their contributions have significantly enriched Israeli culture, and it is crucial that their legacies be recognized and preserved.
Fine Art Shippers is committed to doing everything we can to support Holocaust survivors who are still with us. It is especially moving to know that three of the artists featured in this exhibition are still alive, continuing to bear witness through their art.
Our contribution extends beyond this single exhibition – we have previously contributed artworks to the Castel Museum’s permanent collection, supported an exhibition of Zeev Kun, the first recipient of the Castel Prize, and continue strengthening our ties with Israeli art institutions. I am also pleased that an article about Zeev Kun and his artistic legacy, written by the Castel Museum curator, was recently published in The Jerusalem Report, one of the leading Jewish weeklies worldwide. This is a clear indicator that the Museum’s activities – and the projects in which Fine Art Shippers proudly participates – resonate deeply with Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora.
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Rachel Har-Zahav, Chairperson of the Board of the Castel Museum, and Hagai Sasson, the Museum’s Director General, for their dedication to promoting cultural initiatives that touch both the minds and hearts of thousands. It is my sincere pleasure to collaborate with the Castel Museum on future projects that hold such profound cultural, societal, and commemorative significance.
