Wolloch Haggadah:
Lithographs of a Modern Day Exodus
Part of The Rubin-Frankel Gallery’s permanent collection, The Wolloch Haggadah will be on display April 3– June 29, 2012 in the Rubin-Frankel Gallery at the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House.
The Haggadah is a collected work of blessings, prayers, and excerpts from the Bible, Mishnah, and Midrash. Commissioned by the Wolloch family, The Wolloch Haggadah is a compilation of 55 hand-printed original lithographs signed by the artists, illustrator David Wander and calligrapher Yonah Weinreb. These images, taken out of the traditional book format, link the ancient redemption from Egypt to the Holocaust, and honor memories of those who perished during World War II.The exhibit will be open during Passover and on the day of remembrance of the Holocaust, Yom Ha’Shoa. The deeply expressive images illustrate the relatively recent calamity of the Holocaust, juxtaposing the original texts of the Haggadah that articulate Israel’s prior enslavement. Previously, The Wolloch Haggadah collection was featured at Duke University and by New York Times. The collection honors the remembrance of past hardships and evokes thoughts of a hopeful and just future.
About the Haggadah, Richard McBee describes it as “…a tale of transformations shown through a visual translation of the traditional text.Just as the bread of affliction becomes the matzah of freedom, so too, in his images, the tattered yellow star, a badge of shame, becomes the Israeli flag of pride.All of our treasured sons become treasured books.And just as our imperative to remember our Egyptian bondage and the eventual redemption, so too we must remember the horrors and degradation of the Holocaust and see in the creation of the state of Israel its redemption.It is therefore entirely fitting that the title page of theHolocaust Haggadahcontains this quotation from theBaal Shem Tov:‘Forgetfulness leads to exile, while remembrance is the secret of redemption.’”
Event sponsored by Boston University’s Jewish Cultural Endowment and Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.
Gallery Hours:
Monday - Friday: 9am-9pm
Saturday: 9am-9pm
Sunday: 3pm-9pm