Language:
English
Year of publication:
2005
Titel der Quelle:
Ars Judaica : the Bar-Ilan journal of Jewish art
Publ. der Quelle:
Ramat-Gan
Angaben zur Quelle:
1 (2005), Seite 109 - 116
Keywords:
Buber, Martin
;
Lilien, Ephraim Mose
Abstract:
Primarily political in character, the Zionist movement concerned itself during the early years of its existence and at the first Zionist congresses with the improvement of the physical, economic, and spiritual conditions of Jewish communities. At the Fifth Zionist Congress held in Basel in 1901 the outstanding spokesman was the twenty-two-year-old Martin Buber. Buber's background in Judaism, on the one hand, and the philosophy and new art history that rejected the classical tradition, on the other, enabled him to form a unique vision of an emerging Jewish cultural renaissance. It was to include propagation of Hebrew and Yiddish literature, foundation of publishing houses and journals, advancement of Jewish art - the visual arts, poetry, and music, and the establishment of libraries, museums, mobile exhibitions, theater companies, and a school for higher education. Buber and artist Ephraim Moses Lilien organized an exhibition of twenty contemporary Jewish paintings at the Fifth Congress, while a substantial part of Buber's speech was devoted to Jewish art. Although these concepts were dismissed by the politically oriented Zionists, Buber and his colleagues continued their activity by publishing the Jüdischer Almanach (Berlin, 1902). This and the following publications of the Jüdischer Verlag, the Jewish publishing house in Berlin, emphasized the Jewishness of the artists and stressed Jewish creative expression alongside contemporary issues. Although the questions concerning the very existence of Jewish art, its character, and form have still not been given a satisfactory reply, Buber's vision has been fulfilled. In the course of the century that has elapsed, a rich artistic life has developed in the Jewish world comprising galleries, museums, theaters, concert halls, university art departments, and art journals.
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