jewish artist exhibition tour

	[USHMM #93877/Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem; Original dimensions: 10 3/5" x 7 9/10"] Program cover for Uriel Acosta, 1913 Zionism played a crucial role in Arthur Szyk’s art and politics. In 1914 he journeyed to Ottoman-ruled Palestine, where he composed a series of miniatures on biblical themes. His love of Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) was further cemented by his close personal ties with Vladimir Jabotinsky, the charismatic and controversial Revisionist Zionist leader whom he had met in the 1920s in Paris. Szyk’s artwork melded well with his friend’s militant Zionism, which glorified Jewish national symbols and exploits and extolled biblical heroes as models for the “new Jew” who would populate the future state in Palestine. Szyk designed this program cover for the play Uriel Acosta, which was performed at the Eleventh Zionist Congress in Vienna in 1913. Although the drama focuses on the trials and tribulations of a controversial sixteenth-century Jewish thinker, Szyk’s ornate art is modeled upon ancient Near Eastern sculpture.
	[Exhibition tour with video illustration: Uriel Acosta program cover Playing time 1:02 Narration from audio tour produced by Antenna Audio.] Listen to the description of the program cover for Uriel Acosta from the audio tour produced to accompany the Museum's exhibition. The video clip highlights features described in the narration.
	[Historical film footage: Training for emigration Germany 1930s Silent Playing time 0:38 Chronos Film] Members of a German Zionist youth group learn farming techniques in preparation for their new lives in Palestine. Many Jewish youths in Nazi Germany participated in similar programs, hoping to escape persecution by leaving the country.
	[USHMM #87967] Members of Betar, a Zionist youth organization. The youth in the front holds a framed portrait of Jabotinsky, founder of the movement. Kolbuszowa, Poland, between 1930 and 1935.
	[USHMM #63476/Please contact Beth Hatefutsoth for copies of this photograph] Pioneer members of Betar, a Zionist youth movement, on an agricultural training farm. Bukovina, Romania, 1933.
	[USHMM #87957] Portrait of members of ha-No'ar ha-Tzioni (a Zionist youth group). Kolbuszowa, Poland, 1936.
	[USHMM #69666/Central Zionist Archives] Jewish youth from Germany, new arrivals in Palestine, dance the hora (a folk dance) at Tel Aviv harbor. The Hebrew above the gate reads: "Zion Gate." Palestine, April 1939.
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