Samuel Hirszenberg, The Black Banner,
1905, in Norman L. Kleeblatt and Vivian B. Mann, eds., Treasures of the
Jewish
Museum
(New York: Universe Books, 1986), p. 167.
Samuel Hirszenberg was a native of Lodz, Poland whose work reflected
the realities of Jewish life in Poland. This image shows a procession
of Jews at a funeral of
the Zadik, or Rabbinic spiritual leader of the Hassidic community. Yet,
the dating of the image, 1905, is at a time when great turmoil affected
Russian and Polish Jews through pogroms, initiated by the peasantry and
disgruntled officials as a response, in this case, to the Russian defeat
in the Russo-Japanese war. The pogroms were caused by a mixture of factors:
old-time anti-Judaism, economic issues, peasant debt, search for scapegoats
to explain the failures of government. The anxiety ridden face of the
man in the foreground below the coffin, and the face of the elder on
the far right suggests they see something horrible. We do not know what
it is, and can only guess: mocking crowds? anti-semitism pogromshiks?
Or, in some mystical way, is Hirzenberg making a commentary on the future
of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Does he see the future demise through
extermination? We can only guess.
—Dr. Stephen Feinstein, Director
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
University of Minnesota
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