Boris Schatz (Lithuanian/Israeli 1867-1932)

"Jeremiah," Bronze Relief, 24 x 30 in., Cast in bronze after the plaster model, numbered, special edition by the Estate of Boris Schatz. / Boris Schatz was a Lithuanian Jewish artist and sculptor who settled in Palestine, where he founded the Bezalel School in Jerusalem. In 1895, Schatz accepted an invitation from Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria to become the official court sculptor and to establish that country's Royal Academy of Art. In 1903, he met Theodor Herzl. Schatz, a fiery visionary, wrote in his will: "To my teachers and assistants at Bezalel I give my final thanks for their hard work in the name of the Bezalel ideal. Moreover, I beg forgiveness from you for the great precision that I sometimes demanded of you and that perhaps caused some resentment ... He died while on a fundraising tour in Denver, Colorado in 1932. He was brought back to Jerusalem and buried on the Mount of Olives. (wikipedia) The name Bezalel was adopted by Schatz for the School of Arts and Crafts he founded in Israel in 1906, and Rav Kook wrote a touching letter in support of its creation. He saw the renaissance of art in the Holy Land as a symbol of the regeneration of the Jewish people in its own land, landscape and birthplace. Judaism in the Diaspora, removed from a natural connection with its own historic environment, was inevitably cerebral and spiritual, “alienated.” Only in Israel would an authentic Jewish aesthetic emerge, strengthened by and in turn strengthening Jewish spirituality. (Rabbi Sacks)