#chanukah — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. So your art history post for today is this Hanukkah Lamp, made in a concentration camp, carved wood, 1942, designed by Arnold Zadikow (1884-1943) and carved by Leopold Hecht (1912-1994), 20 1/2 × 22 × 10 in. (52.1 × 55.9 × 25.4 cm), now in the collection of The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, after many years of use at Congregation Beth Hillel (which has since merged with Mount Sinai Jewish Center). #arthistory #hanukkah #chanukah #holocausthistory

From the website: 'This Hanukkah lamp with the Hebrew inscription "Who is like you, O Lord, among the celestials?" (Exodus 15:11) is a rare example of Jewish ceremonial art created during the Holocaust. The sculptor and architect Arnold Zadikow was deported to the camp-ghetto Theresienstadt in May 1942 and assigned to work in the Lautsch Workshop, which made decorative arts for the Nazis. Zadikow was aided by a young woodcarver interned in the camp, Leopold Hecht, who stole the wood for the lamp from the Germans. The lamp was made for the boys' residence, to enable the children to celebrate Hanukkah and to teach them about Judaism, since Jewish instruction was forbidden. It was hidden all year and taken out only during the holiday. Zadikow died at Theresienstadt, but his daughter Marianne and wife, Hilda, also an artist, survived. The lamp was found in the camp after the war.’