Natan Rapoport's Soviet Style of the Yad Mordechai and Negba Memorials
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Chapter 14 Natan Rapoport’s Soviet Style of the Yad Mordechai and Negba Memorials 14.1 Ghetto Heroism and Israeli Valor The very same year of the Herzl gravesite competition, art critic Eugen Kolb met Russian-Jewish sculptor Natan Rapoport (mentioned in chapter 8) in Tel- Aviv. The meeting resulted in an article in which he shared basic, primary ideas about the nature of future Israeli memorials: At a time that many among us begin to design memorials for our War of Independence … Kibbutz Yad Mordechai did well in taking upon itself the initiative to entrust Natan Rapoport with the mission of erect- ing the suitable memorial for the Kibbutz Fallen and to the hero of the Warsaw Ghetto, whose name was adopted by that kibbutz—Mordechai Anilewizc.1 Connecting the Warsaw Ghetto fighters with those of Israel’s Independence War was a popular contemporary Zionist concept. Idit Zartal explains it as wishing to integrate the Ghetto uprisings into the narrative of Israel’s Independence War, one link in a chain of battles for the Land of Israel. It would show that the Diaspora Jews participated in the fight for a Jewish State and that the Zionist struggle for the Jewish state meant life or death. It associated the destiny of European Jewry with the right for the establishment of a Jewish state after World War II.2 Kolb’s great admiration for Natan Rapoport is quite understandable in this context; The Russian sculptor arrived in Israel a few days after the unveiling of his memorial to the Warsaw ghetto uprising in Warsaw (April 19, 1949). The monument was made known in Israel through photographs and newspaper 1 Eugen Kolb, “ha’Andarta, Sicha eem Natan Rapoport” (The Memorial, a Conversation with Natan Rapoport), Al haMishmar, April 18, 1949. For a complete discussion of Natan Rapoport’s oeuvre see: Batya Doner Natan Rapoport Oman Yehudi (Natan Rapoport, Jewish artist), Givat Haviva and Yad Itzchak Ben Zvi, 2015. 2 Idit Zartal, Ha’uma vehaMavet, Historiya, Zikaron (The Nation and Death, History, Memory), Tel Aviv: Dvir Publication, 2002. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004405271_016 336 Chapter 14 figure 14.1 Natan Rapoport’s Memorial for the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters, ca. 1950, postcard issued by The Jewish National Fund articles. The Warsaw Memorial became the primary element in Rapoport’s exceptional reputation among political activists in Israel. The sculptor himself best described his sculptural style by labeling it Heroic Realism, which prevailed in Soviet Russia. His bronze heroes, presented to the public as if emerging from a massive stone wall into the spacious square, are based on 19th century sculptural concepts such as those of French sculptor Francois Rude’s French Revolution heroes on the Arch of Triumph in Paris. “Settlements, kibbutzim, public institutions and army units, etc. are now dealing with future plans for the erection of memorials to the Fallen.” Kolb wrote.