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Europeans of the Orient HAARETZ BOOKS August 2012 A peek in the closet The best of the Besht Where's the Codex? Israel's fledgling sense of fashion 11 The Baal Shem Tov revealed 6 The ongoing mystery of a priceless Bible 12 Art Europeans of the Orient A recent museum exhibit in Paris delved into the question of how Orientalism has changed the image of the Jew in Europe, for both Christians and Jews Les Juifs dans l’orientalisme (The Jews in Orientalism ), with an introduction and under the direction of Laurence Sigal-Klagsbald. Skira Flammarion: Musee d’art et d’histoire du Judaisme (in French ), 197 pages, 35.50 euros By Simon J. Rabinovitch arlier this year, the Musee d’art et d’histoire E du Judaisme, in Paris, brought together works of art from over 40 museums in Europe, Israel and the United States that in some way reflect how to Europeans, over the course of the 19th and early 20th century, Jews became associat- ed with the “Orient.” For most of its history, “Orientalism” re- ferred to the study and repre- sentation of the “Orient” − the Muslim world − in Western art, architecture, literature, mu- sic and scholarship. Yet today, Orientalism is more commonly understood as a frame of mind wherein the “Orient” exists as a fantasy place at the periphery of civilization (the Occident ). Continued on page 4 4 BOOKS )""3&5;ď"VHVTU "VHVTUď)""3&5; Stedelijk Museum, on loan from the Amsterdam Historical Museum Historical Amsterdam the from loan on Museum, Stedelijk Collection of Ethel LeFrak and the LeFrak Family / Adam Reich Adam / Family LeFrak the and LeFrak Ethel of Collection Berlin Jewish Museum / Jens Ziehe Jens / Museum Jewish Berlin “Old Jewish Merchant and Arabs,” by Jean-Leon Gerome (1883) “Moses Looks upon the Promised Land,” by Lesser Ury (1928) “Jewish Bride in Morocco,” by Eugène Delacroix (c. 1852) Several French museums have in fact the image of the Oriental Jew in their own large gold earrings and adorned in a gold bo- The Orient held exhibitions in recent years examining art and in their search for new identities. As lero and flowing red robe, stares seriously, Continued from page 1 Orientalism. As Laurence Sigal-Klagsbald, such, the exhibition looks at Jews both as even nervously, at the artist. In contrast, the the director of the Paris Jewish Museum, subjects and artists. bride’s black African servant stands behind In no small part due to the influence points out in his introduction to the catelog, The initial idea for an exhibit on Jews her, leaning against the wall with a relaxed of the late literary scholar Edward Said, the continued interest in Orientalist art and Orientalism was to focus on Eugéne and knowing smile. Orientalism is perceived as a mode of suggests that the polemics that resulted Delacroix’s trip to North Africa following The last painting of the section about the Western imperialism: a means to dominate from a critical look at colonialism clearly the French conquest of Algiers, in 1830. “discovery” of Oriental Jews, by William the East as much as to describe it. The suc- did not discredit or devalue the visual art While accompanying a French diplomatic Wyld, depicts Jews departing Algeria for cess of Said’s 1978 book “Orientalism,” and (or, one might add, music and literature, mission as an official artist, Delacroix the Holy Land, making it a beautiful segue the significant role he played both as an either ) that is a byproduct of European co- made many sketches and drawings that into a series of 19th-century paintings of advocate for Palestinians and a founder of lonialism. In identifying the Jews as a con- would form the reference for his later oeu- Jerusalem and its surroundings by European postcolonial studies, led to a situation where, necting point between Orient and Occident, vre of Orientalist painting, and inaugurated artists. In Wyld’s technically detailed can- until very recently, those who looked at the this exhibit attempts, as one of its curators, the depiction of the “Jewish type” − usually vas a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, of relationship between Jews and Orientalism Nicolas Feuille, told me, “to go beyond the female − in the genre. Other French artists, Jews and onlookers gather outside the walls focused on Jews as Orientalists, whether as schematic view of Edward Said.” such as Theodore Chasseriau and Alfred of Algiers. It is up to the viewer to discern Zionists in a supposedly colonialist enter- Each of the catalog’s five excellent es- Dehodencq, both of whom began to paint the many facial expressions and small dra- prise, or as Jewish Orientalist scholars in says − by the art historians Sigal-Klagsbald, in Morocco and Algeria in the 19th century, mas that abound, and differentiate between the service of European imperialism. Yet Christine Peltre, Alexis Merle du Bourg, looked to Jewish subjects possibly because those who are about to board the waiting because Jews were an important and vis- Yigal Zalmona and Perrine Simon-Nahum − they proved more willing than the Muslim ships and those staying behind. ible part of the Muslim world at the time of examines a different aspect of Orientalism’s population to sit for portraits, and possibly expanding European empires, they were trajectory, from its historical context in Intimacy of the Wall also from the very start a key subject of the early 19th century to the scholarly de- European Orientalist art and music. bates about Orientalism today. Like the North African and Notable among the Jerusalem land- From the earliest encounters by French exhibit, the catalog focuses on the question scapes, paintings by Vasily Vereshchagin artists with African Jews during and after of how Orientalism changed the image of Middle Eastern Jews, and Alexandre Bida (both titled “Solomon’s the Napoleonic campaigns, to the internal- the Jew in Europe, for both Christians and says museum director Wall” ), depict men, women and children ization of an Oriental self-image by self-de- Jews. According to Sigal-Klagsbald, how pressed against the Western Wall in prayer. scribed “New Hebrews” − Jewish artists who Christian artists viewed North African and Sigal-Klagsbald, In Vereshchagin’s painting, one can feel had moved from Eastern Europe to Palestine Middle Eastern Jews developed in stages: the intimacy of the Wall as a prayer space in the early 20th century − the exhibit (which They saw them successively “as ethno- have been seen before the open plaza was constructed in ran from March through early last month ) graphic subjects, exotic figures, negative front of it in 1967. The image of men and and its beautifully illustrated companion mirrors of Europe, fantasy objects (positive as ‘ethnographic women praying side-by-side in the paint- volume looks at the relationship between the or pejorative ) about an ‘ancient race,’” be- ing (corroborated by a photo in the catalog Jews and Orientalist art from a variety of fore Jewish artists in Europe and Palestine subjects, exotic figures, from the museum’s permanent collection ) European and Jewish perspectives. in the early 20th century began to employ is a stark contrast to the strict gender sepa- negative mirrors of ration there today. European artists traveling to the Holy Europe and fantasy Land in the 19th century believed that they could come closer to authentically repre- objects (positive or senting the Bible by using Middle Eastern Jews, Bedouins and Arabs as subjects. The pejorative ) about an Orientalization of biblical art has its ori- gins not only in colonialism, but also in the “ancient race.”’ influence of Rembrandt and the anti-classi- cal trend in European art, which was grow- because they were fascinated by the strik- ing at the time, as well as the popularity ing difference in appearance between the of written historical works such as Ernest North African Jews they encountered and Renan’s 1863 “The Life of Jesus,” which the European Jews they were familiar with, situated the emergence of Christianity either from life or from artistic depictions. in its Roman and Jewish setting. Later in The painters were attracted to the lively the century, Jewish artists such as Lesser activities and bright clothing of Jewish fes- Ury (whom a young Martin Buber called tivities. Dehodencq, who lived in Morocco a “poet of the Jewish soul” ) and Maurycy between 1853 and 1863, used sketches to Gottleib painted scenes from the Hebrew paint “Jewish Wedding in Morocco” and Bible and the New Testament, with the “Jewish Festival in Tangier” both of which intention of either giving these texts uni- have women at their center. The Jews in these versal significance or explicitly linking works, especially the exotically dressed and the origins of Western civilization to the sexually suggestive women, appear as a ro- Jews. In one self-portrait echoing the style manticized remnant of pre-Christian Jews. of Rembrandt, Gottleib − a Galician Jew − In the former canvas, the Jewish bride, with Continued on page 13 )""3&5;ď"VHVTU "VHVTUď)""3&5; BOOKS 13 of their ancient and vibrant community. highlighted by this exhibit − and ignored For them, the flight from their city marked Orient by Said − is its fundamentally Christian not the end but the beginning of exile, Continued from page 4 basis. There is a reason Orientalist art was and from their perspective the Crown went so far as to paint a personalized more concerned with the North African was undoubtedly theirs alone to keep. For fantasy of himself as an Arab: turbaned, and Middle Eastern world of Islam and Zionist leaders, the Crown, like the Dead with sword in hand, he created an exotic Judaism than the Far East, namely the Sea Scrolls, became a symbol of a larger Oriental alter-ego.
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