Another procession
08 July 2013
Courtesy Ephraim Margolin, California, USAThere are a number of examples of works in which Lejzerowicz draws processions of people. The blog entry for July 1 showed one of them.
In today’s entry, we see a group of some 18 people – men, women, and children this time – carrying a broken menorah up a mountain on a litter or plank. Presumably this illustrates the journey of the Jewish people into Babylonian exile after the destruction of the temple. Or perhaps it is the continuing struggle of the Jewish people and their leaders to hold on to their traditions and carry the practice of Judaism up the mountain of time in a hostile world. The photograph shown here is from an album created in 1938 for Dr. Ewa Spektor Margolin. A large copy of the work - perhaps an original print - is in the collection of the artist’s niece, Ruth Lewis, formerly Ruth Leiserowitz, in Maryland, USA. Yad Vashem Photo Archives has a small photographic copy that came from Sala Lejzerowicz Rozynès, the artist’s surviving sister in Lyon, France. Lejzerowicz must have considered it a significant work, as at least two family members and a close friend were presented with copies. Without further study, it is difficult to know for sure if the original work was a print, or if what survives today was derived originally from a painting.