On September 2, 1945, the desperate battle against the Axis Powers came to a close with the signing of a surrender by the Japanese Empire. Germany, Italy and their allies had already been defeated.
The dream of a dictatorial rule over the world by the Axis Powers fell partly because its spiritual foundations were bankrupt. One of the soldiers in the spiritual battle was Arthur Szyk, an artist who mobilized religious Jews with his illustration of the Haggadah, the Jewish worship book for the Passover.
In the Fall of 2017, the New York Historical Society commemorated this artistic soldier with the exhibit “Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art.”
In the exhibit at the New York Historical Society of Szyk’s work supporting the United States effort during World War II , you might have caught some wisdom from former pulpit rabbi Irvin Ungar, who has extraordinary knowledge about Arthur Szyk.
At a Shabbat service at the Temple Israel of the City of New York, Ungar gave a brisk, energetic talk on Szyk’s use of Psalm 130, “Out of the depths, I call on you, O Lord.“
Arthur Szyk came from war-torn Europe to embolden the United States to fight the Nazis and rescue the Jews from the Holocaust. If the prophet Jeremiah had illustrated his warnings against disaster with richly illuminated illustrations, he surely would have done something like the fine art cartoons of Szyk.
Szyk is most famous for his richly illustrated Haggadah, the book read during the meal on the eve of Passover. Szyk’s Haggadah delivered a warning to Europe’s Jews that their winter was coming in the form of a deathly genocide planned by Adolph Hitler. His illustrations for popular magazines in the United States called attention to the religious dimensions of the Nazi threat.
His 1943 ink-and-graphite drawing titled “De Profundis” shows a slain Christ lying with a pile of murdered Jews under the question, “Cain, where is Abel thy brother?” As President Franklyn Delano Roosevelt underlined the aims of the United States in World War II, Szyk’s drawing “Arsenal of Democracy” hung as a placard in the White House.
The Szyk Haggadah Video: Celebrate Passover with the coolest Haggadah around!
Temple Israel of the City of New York
