jewish artist exhibition tour curator's comments

	[USHMM #93841/Sussi Collection, Chicago; Original dimensions: 13 5/8" x 10 5/8"] Haman hanging on the gallows, 1950 In this version of the Esther story, Szyk once again portrayed himself as the interpreter of Jewish history. The artist gazes at the swastika-bedecked figure of Haman, hanging on the gallows that Haman had built to kill Mordechai. Szyk holds a hamentasch, the pastry traditionally eaten during the Jewish holiday of Purim, while writing "the people of Israel will be liberated from their persecutors."
	[Exhibition tour: Haman hanging on the gallows Playing time 1:07 Narration from audio tour produced by Antenna Audio.] Listen to the description of "Haman hanging from the gallows" from the audio tour produced to accompany the Museum's exhibition.
	[Interview: Steve Luckert United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. 2002 Playing time 1:08] Dr. Steve Luckert, curator of The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk, speaks about Szyk's illustrations of the biblical Book of Esther. Szyk illustrated the Book of Esther twice, in the 1920s and again in the 1950s. Both times, says Dr. Luckert, the themes portrayed in the artwork were Szyk's "answer to the antisemitism of his times."
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