With the help of over one hundred illustrations spanning three centuries, Richard Cohen investigates the role of visual images in European Jewish history. The interaction of Jews with the visual arts takes place, as Cohen says, in a vast gallery of prints, portraits, books, synagogue architecture, ceremonial art, modern Jewish painting and sculpture, political broadsides, monuments, medals, and memorabilia. Pointing to recent scholarship that overturns the stereotype of Jews as people of the text, unconcerned with the visual, Cohen shows how the coming of the modern period expanded the relationship of Jews to the visual realm far beyond the religious context. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the study and collecting of Jewish art became a legitimate and even passionate pursuit, and signaled the entry of Jews into the art world as painters, collectors, and dealers.

upload/motw_shc_2025_10/shc/Jewish Icons_ Art and Society i - Richard I. Cohen.pdf

motw/Jewish Icons_ Art and Society i - Richard I. Cohen.pdf

Yeraḥmî'ēl R Kohēn

Cohen, Richard I.

United States, United States of America

First, First Edition, PS, 1998

Berkeley, California, 1998

producers:
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Memory of the World Librarian: Calamitous Annunciation

Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-348) and index.

With the help of over one hundred illustrations spanning three centuries, Richard Cohen investigates the role of visual images in European Jewish history. In these images and objects that reflect, refract, and also shape daily experience, he finds new and illuminating insights into Jewish life in the modern period. Pointing to recent scholarship that overturns the stereotype of Jews as people of the text, unconcerned with the visual, Cohen shows how the coming of the modern period expanded the relationship of Jews to the visual realm far beyond the religious context. In one such manifestation, orthodox Jewry made icons of popular tabbis, creating images that helped to bridge the sacred and the secular. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the study and collecting of Jewish art became a legitimate and even passionate pursuit, and signaled the entry of Jews into the art world as painters, collectors, and dealers. Cohen's exploration of early Jewish exhibitions, museums, and museology opens a new window on the relationship of art to Jewish culture and society.
General
Religious
Jewish
History
Social Science
European
Criticism & Theory
Subjects & Themes
Jewish Studies
Art
CONTENTS 7
ILLUSTRATIONS 9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 17
INTRODUCTION 20
I. THE VISUAL IMAGE OF THE JEW AND JUDAISM: FROM SYMBOLISM TO REALISM 30
2. CEREMONIAL ART, PATRONAGE, AND TASTE 88
3. THE RABBI AS ICON 134
4. NOSTALGIA AND "THE RETURN TO THE GHETTO" 174
5. SELF-EXPOSURE, SELF-IMAGE, AND MEMORY 206
6. IMAGES OF JEWISH FATE: AT A CROSSROADS 240
EPILOGUE 276
NOTES 281
BIBLIOGRAPHY 339
INDEX 369

With the help of over one hundred illustrations spanning three centuries, Richard Cohen investigates the role of visual images in European Jewish history. The interaction of Jews with the visual arts takes place, as Cohen says, in a vast gallery of prints, portraits, books, synagogue architecture, ceremonial art, modern Jewish painting and sculpture, political broadsides, monuments, medals, and memorabilia. Pointing to recent scholarship that overturns the stereotype of Jews as people of the text, unconcerned with the visual, Cohen shows how the coming of the modern period expanded the relationship of Jews to the visual realm far beyond the religious context. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the study and collecting of Jewish art became a legitimate and even passionate pursuit, and signaled the entry of Jews into the art world as painters, collectors, and dealers."Cohen's analysis of images of Jews advances swiftly beyond the history of stereotypes in favor a complexity of mutual perception, and his depiction of images by Jews challenges the standard assumption of the anti-visuality of Jewish culture". -- Michael P. Steinberg, Cornell University"Richard Cohen's work draws both on his profound knowledge of modern Jewish history and his awareness of the importance of art to a full understanding of the past". -- Vivian B. Mann, Morris and Eva Feld Chair of Judaica, The Jewish Museum

2025-10-27