Around Jewish Art

The seemingly effortless process by which a suitable title is selected for an encyclopedia such as this became exponentially more complex and difficult as I explored the available options and heard the mounting arguments from all sides. Finding the right mix of words was crucial. After pondering the subject for several months in an effort to arrive at the best possible title, I finally opted for "Around Jewish Art."

PART I
Artists of Jewish Extraction Who Did Not Paint Judaic Scenes

PART 2
List of artists of Jewish extraction who painted Jewish scenes or whose works came to reflect their attachment to their roots.

PART III
There were also some non-Jewish artists who painted Judaic and Jewish scenes or went to work in Palestine and those who exhibited in Jewish institutions and museums as well as others who have not been identified as being Jewish for sure.

PART IV
Sculptors and medallists
Probably because of a reference in the Bible to Abraham destroying statues of pagan gods, Jewish artists refrained from producing sculptures representing humans until at least the 19th Century. It was only after 1880, when many Jews benefited from the emancipation process in Central and Eastern Europe that they felt inclined to turn to this form of art.
Many Jewish artists worked as sculptors during the 19th and 20th Century, some of them became quite famous like Chana Orlov, Jacques Lipchitz, Elie Nadelman or Jacob Epstein among others.