“As clay in the hands of the ceramic artist“
A Study-Day on Art and Judaism
in Memory of Anna Andersch-Marcus
Yeroham Public Library
June 14, 2005
Program:
09:30-09:45 Arrival
09:45-10:00Opening remarks
10:00-11:00Guest Lecture: Homage to Jerusalem, Names Surround Her- Calligraphy
Artist Ya’akov Boussidan
11:00-13:00Study and Art Workshops:
- Yona Knoll: Creative Writing Exercises Inspired by Midrash
- Tamar Biton: Human creativity – Completion of Creation or Rebellion Against God?
- Iris Etkes: Light in Poetry, Text and Creative Exercises
- Debbie Goldman Golan: Creator and Artist – Their Responsibility for their Creations
- Mira Sandrussi: Anna’s Painting Technique
- Screening of the film about Anna and Shlomo by Na’ama Markovitch, and conversation with Shlomo afterwards
13:00-13:15Summary
13:15-13:45Lunch Break (Lunch can be ordered in advance or purchased on site.)
The Future of ATID BAMIDBAR
A Day of Brainstorming, Study and Discussion
About Possible Avenues of Development
BamidbarCenter, Neveh Nof, Yeroham
Program:
13:45-15:30Survey and Joint Analysis of Development Till Today
15:30-17:30ATID BAMIDBAR’s Future Development:
Small Group Discussions of Questions and Dilemmas
17:30-18:00Summary
18:15-19:30Musical Performance and Sunset View
Creative Study and Arts Activities for Children
All Day Long
This event is supported by the Avi Chai Foundation, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Torah Culture Department, Ministry of Education, the Blechner Chair in Jewish Values,
Ben-GurionUniversity, and the YerohamCommunity Center.
Anna Andersch Marcus – A Brief Biographical Overview
The life of Anna Andersch Marcus, a world-renown artist whose works are found in Europe, USA and Israel, reflects significant aspects of the history of our time and the Jewish people.
Anna was born in Germany in 1914, to a family long characterized by artistic creativtiy, on her father’s side a family of priestly and Sephardi descent. Her studies in the distinguished schools of art in Kiel and Berlin were cut short when the Nazis rose to power. Because she organized anti-Nazi activities among the students and joined the underground, her works, some of which already hung in museums, were destroyed, and she was exiled to an isolated island, where she survived the war. She worked in various artistic media, among them calligraphy, graphics, vitrage, lithograph, oil
Anna made aliyah to Israel in 1969. For twenty years, with her husband Shlomo Marcus, she made her home in Jerusalem, high on the Mount of Olives. In 1988 she and Shlomo moved to the development town of Yeroham in the Negev, whose surroundings have inspired her work. The paintings of her later years especially reflect the natural and human landscapes in and around Yeroham, between Lake and Makhtesh. A new exhibition of her artwork is displayed annually in the Bamidbar Center, in whose activity Anna and Shlomo took active part, and inspire the study of Jewish and Israeli sources and new creative work that take place there.
In Anna’s paintings, the optical reality is preserved in almost photographic fidelity, but it is raised to a visionary view beyond time and space. Her works on religious and biblical themes are abstract, reflecting the essence of religious insight transcending every corporeal or worldly dimension. Light is an important element in Anna’s work, and the contrasts between light and shadow and the rays frequently breaking through opaque matter, express – even in seemingly hopeless situations – unbroken faith.
There are few towns in which artists of Anna’s stature live and work; Yeroham can be proud that Anna lived and created in town. Anna’s contribution to Yeroham is expressed in different ways. Her wall paintings decorate public buildings in town, among them the Afikim BaNegev Synagogue, where the windows and ark covers are also of her design, and a kindergarten in the Eli Cohen neighborhood. Her “Negev Landscapes” exhibition is displayed in the Public Library. For several years, Anna taught art privately to children and adults, worked with the elderly, and with schools. She also served as judge in various art contests during the years. Her paintings hang in the Local Council offices and in many private homes in Yeroham.
Anna died on Monday, April 11, 2005, two months before her 91st birthday.
She was buried on the Mount of Olives, not far from where she once lived.
On Anna Marcus and the Study-Day on Art and Judaism
in her Memory, June 14, 2005
Ever since they arrived in Yeroham nearly 18 years ago, Anna and Shlomo Marcus have been an integral part of our lives. A mixture of grandma and grandpa, soulmates, teachers and guides, sources of inspiration and model figures - they enrich our lives and our days in thousands of ways. We found a common language of love for human beings and nature, our land and our heritage, the Bible and archaeology, the Negev and Yeroham. We were privileged to receive from them advice in raising our children and in dealing with adversity, and they have taught us impressive lessons in how to live life to the full, with raised awareness, commitment, responsibility, independence, courage, caring, and optimism, even at a ripe old age.
It is still hard for me that Anna is gone. Despite the fact that her last months were full of suffering, physical and emotional, and her soul is at rest at last. Despite the fact that her presence is still felt in every corner, thanks to her artwork, that gladdens the heart and comforts those who mourn her. In the library, the synagogue, Bamidbar, our home and our friends’ homes – her hand and her paintings touched, illuminated and left behind light and color, a deep and unique reflection of the many layers of reality as she experienced it.
Almost from the beginning of Bamidbar, the Creative Bet Midrash in Yeroham, Anna and Shlomo were part of the thinking, doing, and realization of the dream, a neverending source of encouragement and appreciation. Anna’s wonderful paintings adorn the walls of the renovated bomb shelter that became Bamidbar Center, contribute to and shape the cultural and esthetic ambience that never fails to excite, move and arouse wonder in all who enter.
Just as Anna lived her paintings – especially these last years when they featured Negev scenes reflected in the prism of her personality, life experience and desire to reveal the light in everything – they also gave her life. And thus she wanted and insisted that her paintings live as well – in constant contact with human beings, as part of educational activities, as inspiration for new personal creativity. It seems she always sought to awaken others to life and creativity.
We feel therefore that it is only appropriate to organize this day in her memory – not a monument or a sign or a document – but study, discussion, lectures, creative workshops, alongside parallel activity for children, whom Anna loved. We invited artist Ya’akov Boussidan, who knew Anna, to speak about calligraphy and Jerusalem – two of Anna’s loves that played significant roles in her personal and professional life. Thanks to the many people who Anna loved and who loved her, we were able to organize this day, which we hope will become an annual event, held near Anna’s birthday on the fourth of Sivan, and near the festival of Shavuot, the festival of the giving of the Torah in the desert, with all its meanings. In Anna’s paintings of the desert, water dialogues with stone, the rocks speak, the clouds and plants sing, the mountains move and flow, the sky echoes, the apparent-desolation is full of life and vitality, and light filters through all. For just as the Torah was given in the desert, a place of difficulty as well as a place of freedom and great faith, open to all who come into this world and a potential source of solidarity for the diverse ‘tribes’ of our people, thus Anna’s Torah, her life’s teachings, were given to us. And all who wish may come and receive it.
The writings in this booklet are just a modest collection of what friends and family said about her, mainly at the funeral and afterwards, to share with family and admirers abroad. It is only a taste of what can be written about Anna of blessed memory. We hope that we can publish more in the future.
Debbie Golan
ATID BAMIDBAR
Yeroham
Anna Andersch Marcusאנה אנדרש מרכוס
“This is the Book of the Generations of Adam…in the image of God He made him “ (Genesis 5:1). This teaches that God showed Adam each generation and its interpreters, each generation and its wise men, each generation and its sages (Seder Olam, Chap.30). In every generation the words of Torah are learned anew, and new interpretations are revealed that are unique to each generation. About the meanderings of the Children of Israel in the desert for 40 years it was said: “In order to teach you that man does not liveon bread alone, but that man may live on anything that issues out of the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3). The Aramaic translation of Onkelos the Proselyte is surprising: The first “live” he translates as “exists” and the second as “lives”. Physical being is described as existence but spiritual being is – life.
In our generation, savants have taught us to see and understand the difference between existence and life. A whole “existential” philosophy developed that distinguishes between the passive, almost vegetative passing of a person’s years and the active initiative to lead a life by the spirit. A person who plans his life to live his truth, and influence it according to his choice and decision, takes his fate into his hands. We find this meaning of the word ‘live’ in the verses about Abraham: “And these are the days of the years of Abraham that he lived” (Gen.25:7) and Adam, God’s creation: “And these are all the days of Adam that he lived” (Gen.5:5).
Our late dear Anna never merely existed but shaped her life according to the strength of her will. Her path in life showed some zig-zags that took shape from her truth as she knew it in each period. A member of the anti-Fascist underground, an extreme left-winger in her student days in Berlin, she moved to Hamburg to adapt to the opinions of Gorch Fock, and more meanderings, till her move to Israel, to join our nation and find shelter under the wings of the Shekhinah. She settled in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives out of her hope for coexistence, and when that was disappointed she went to Yeroham in the Negev Desert. Her path in life is reflected in her art, in the styles of her paintings and the talent she was gifted with. As an educated intellectual she delved into philosophy, and as good-hearted person she acted with virtue. She had that excess of spirit, the spirit that sustained her, even in the difficult period of her last illness. She realized her own truth, despite the doctors’ prognosis. As it is written in Proverbs (18:14): “Man’s spirit will sustain his illness” – will contain it in his soul and not despise it (Ramban on Exodus 25: 29). She suffered in nobility.
Anna the artist used to the fullest extent the gifts she was blessed with. In the Torah it is written of Bezalel Ben Uri “And I shall fill him with wisdom, insight and knowledge (da’at)” (Exodus 31: 4). Rashi defines three stages in artistic creativity that today we would call Perception, Cognition, and Intuition. Da’at according to Rashi is the Spirit of sanctity. And Maimonides interprets it thus: “The first stage of art is that God’s help accompanies man, awakens and motivates him to create something valuable, unique and good" (Guide for the Perplexed 2: 45). We look at the influence of Anna’s move to the desert on her art. When the ‘desert generation’ was told to wander 40 years in the desert it was not only a punishment but an educational process. This process strengthened the generation that entered the Land for all generations, and enabled them to withstand hardships. The desert landscape shaped the character of the Jewish people. Thus it also influenced Anna’s style with intensity in the magnificent shapes of the landscape, “Wucht” in German. Anna’s works are found all over Israel, such as in the Hospice on Mt. Scopus.
Her colorful personality and the style of her artwork both remind us of her image. We are privileged to have known her and loved her, and we will preserve her memory in admiration and appreciation.
Rabbi Zev Gotthold, Jerusalem
A Eulogy in Memory of Anna Andersch Marcus
April 14th, 2005
5th of Nisan 5765
The artist often walks a thin line at the brink of the abyss, not only as a result of his personal and unique style, but also for the opposition to evil and social injustice that, at times, is reflected in his work.
Anna had many a difficult day in her lifetime because of her personal and unique art style and her uncompromising opposition to the evil and injustice then prevalent in her European homeland, at that period in its history. Despite all, Anna had the strength of character and tenacious will to stand firm in her belief in the goodness of man and in the beauty of the world around her. Her works of art expressed ideas that others refrained from ever vocalizing publicly.
Anna paid a dear price for her idealistic social position and art style, which ran counter to accepted conventions. Anna had to forgo life’s pleasures and comforts that others took for granted, even including relinquishing her personal freedom for a period of time.
Despite all the difficulties and obstacles Anna encountered, she never lost her firm belief in the inherent humanity of mankind. Anna’s penetrating eye captured the beauty of an object and turned the ordinary into a work of art. In her minds’ eye, Anna foresaw the end result even before her paintbrush touched the canvas. Her work revealed an elegant and sensitive personality.
We had the good fortune and privilege of experiencing her friendship, if even for a brief moment, which left many of us relishing the encounter.
Anna is no longer with us and we are the poorer for it. However, Anna has left an encouraging legacy. We should not be content with the commonplace in our lives. We are duty-bound as human beings to utilize our finest innate abilities as we go about our daily activities.
Anna Andersch Marcus, may your memory be blessed.
Mordechai Gefter
Yeroham
Anna Marcus of Blessed Memory – Artist and Teacher
We read in Genesis (24:1) “And Abraham was old, advanced in years (ba bayamim, literally, coming with days). And the phrase is interpreted: ba bayamim – he comes and all his days come with him”. Because he filled his days with rich meaning, at the end of his life he could stretch out his hands and say: ‘See, I did something, my hands are not empty.’ Anna’s tremendous body of work is the record of her days, and that work remains here with us.
I had the privilege of being among those who frequented Anna and Shlomo’s home in Yeroham, a home that was for me a shining lighthouse. Always, entering their house, one moved into a mode of absorbing. So much to absorb, so much to learn, from the smallest details of the life of this amazing couple, from the calm infusing their home, the being satisfied with a minimum, the manners, the restraint, the moderate speech. Their home was for me an anchor of wisdom and culture. So different than the daily Israeli reality outside, like another planet of reason, the love of Torah and the wise words of Shlomo, and the art, the fine taste, the noble carriage of Anna. All these captivated my heart, taught wisdom, and gave strength.
I remember the day I came to study painting with Anna. She was a gifted artist, with a refined taste and original style. But more than that she had a deep, unique and sharp insight into nature and her surroundings, human and inanimate. We began to study sketching, and she taught me the principles of perspective. Please don’t judge the teacher by the pupil’s achievements….
She repeated and emphasized in German – “Du musst sehen kennen” (You must learn to see!). As time passed I have come to realize that her home and all her ways gave me a perspective on life, a renewed vision of all reality, that I have taken with me to other fields.
More than drawing, I learned from Anna manners, true humility and modesty, optimism, and nobility. I communicated with her in broken English and in Yiddish which pretended to be even more broken German, but the language of the heart overcame all barriers, the language of art and wisdom that guided her skilled hands and flowed from the inner wisdom of her exceptional personality.