Professional Documents
Culture Documents
REGISTR ARS
Julie Franklin and Rebecca Hisiger
P R E PA R AT O R
Ernest Jolly
DESIGN
Gordon Chun Design
Casey Knudsen
Acknowledgements
Major funding for The Magnes comes from the Helzel Family
Foundation, Koret Foundation, Magnes Leadership Circle,
Magnes Museum Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and
The Office of the Chancellor at the University of California,
Berkeley.
Research for this project was made possible in part by funds and
resources provided by the Undergraduate Research Apprentice
Program (URAP) and by Digital Humanities at the University of
California, Berkeley.
Coins of the Bible: Era of the 1st and 2nd Jewish Revolt.
Authentic reproduction
COVER: N.d.
Arthur Szyk, Bar Kochba, Paris, France, 1927, watercolor and gouache on paper Composite metal and offset lithograph sheet
Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes, UC Berkeley, 2017.5.1.30 67.100A–H
2 1
WA R R E N H E L L M A N G A L L E R Y
CASE A
Icons of Might
2 3
CASE B
Reckless Rites
3. Ori Sherman (1934–1988, Israel and United States) 6. Abraham Krol (1919–2001, Poland and France)
The Story of Hannukah haggadah shel pesach, Plate XXII: va-yolekh adonai
San Francisco, United States, 1985 et ha-yam (Passover Haggadah, after Exodus 14:21:
Gouache and metal leaf on paper “and the Lord drove back the sea”)
Gift of Robert Friend, 2011.2
Paris, France, n.d. [after 1957]
Etching on paper, edition 3/99
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Horn, 79.69.3.22
4 5
1. Souvenir tray decorated with biblical texts, including
Psalm 137
Damascus, Syria, circa 1925
Brass with silver and copper overlay, with silver niello
Gift of Mrs. Mary Schussheim, 85.35.47
6. Purim noisemaker
Germany, 19th century
Wood, metal
Gift of Michael Laufer, 78.37
6 7
7. Purim noisemaker inscribed in Hebrew, arur haman
asher biqesh le-abdi (Cursed be Haman who asked to
destroy me)
Europe, 19th century
Ivory, silver
Judah L. Magnes Museum purchase, 76.270
9. Yehoash (Solomon) Bloomgarden (1872–1927) and Untitled. [Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam] (part), Paris, France, 1923, watercolor,
graphite, and gouache on paper, Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection,
Evlin Yehoash (1905–1973) The Magnes, UC Berkeley, 2017.5.1.17
megiles ester (Esther Scroll)
Yiddish
New York, United States, 1936
Ink on paper
Gift of Elsinore Culture Club, 76.53 CASE C
8 9
Arthur Szyk (1894–1951, Poland, France, UK, Canada, and
United States)
Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection
of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley
2. Sulamith
Paris, France, 1925
Watercolor, graphite, and gouache on paper
2017.5.1.24
5. The Haggadah
London, England, 1940
Ink on paper, leather and board bound
2017.5.2.69
6. Untitled. [Moses the Prophet] 9. My People. Samson in the Ghetto (The Battle of the
Warsaw Ghetto)
Łódź, Poland, 1918
Ink and graphite on paper New York, United States, 1945
2017.5.1.10 Watercolor, gouache, graphite, and ink on board
2017.5.1.129
7. Bar Kochba
10. The Repulsed Attack (from The Songs of the Ghetto)
Paris, France, 1927
Watercolor, colored pencil, and gouache on paper New York, United States, 1943
2017.5.1.30 Ink and graphite on board
2017.5.1.113
10 11
CASE D
The Israeli victory in the Six Day War (1967) and the ensu
ing administration of Jerusalem under a single authority
allowed for a slew of archaeological discoveries in the
area surrounding the city. Grandiose archaeological
projects, rooted in a national narrative that had evolved
since the beginning of the twentieth century, developed
in the following decade. Contemporary Israeli posters
convey this moment in time and the interconnectedness
of politics, public relations, and archaeology. The posters
show ordinary people inviting viewers to participate in the
excavations. Archaeology in Jerusalem was celebrated
by the Israeli government with a series of new stamps,
cementing the findings with national identity and conflat
ing the new State of Israel with the ancient Land of Israel.
1. Moshe Pereg
Finds from the Archaeological Excavations Near the
Finds from the Archaeological Excavations, No. 1
Temple Mount
Israel, Israeli Government Advertising Bureau, circa 1970
Offset lithograph
2015.0.13.182
12 13
CASE E
Persian and Hellenistic Period
1000–200 BCE
Two Sides of a Coin: Conquest and
Resistance in Ancient Judea 587 BCE: Conquest of Jerusalem by Babylonians
Coin 4.
Phoenician Coin
Arados, Phoenicia, 135–112 BCE
Bronze
Gift of Dr. Sylvan Gross, 80.57.43
Coin 5.
Prutah of Judah Aristobulus
Jerusalem, Hasmonean Kingdom of Judea, 104–103 BCE
Bronze
2018.0.1.2
16 17
The First Jewish-Roman War
66–73 CE
Coin 9.
Prutah from First Jewish Revolt
Jerusalem, Roman Province of Judea, 68 CE
Bronze
2018.0.1.5
Coin 10.
Prutah
Jerusalem, Roman Province of Judea, 68 CE
Bronze
Object 2. First Jewish-Roman War
2018.0.1.6
The Holy Land. Jerusalem. Views and Pressed Wild
Flowers of the Holy Land Coin 11.
Jerusalem, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, T. Habesch—
Prutah with inscription, “Deliverance of Zion”
The Commercial Press, between 1948–1967
Jerusalem, Roman Province of Judea, 67–98 CE (reproduction)
Plant matter, ink on paper, olive wood covers, silk cord binding
Bronze
Gift of Seymour and Rebecca Fromer, 99.11.1
2018.0.1.7
Object 3. First Jewish-Roman War
Spice container depicting a landscape, with pyramid
and palm trees
North Africa, circa 20th century
Silver with niello
Judah L. Magnes Museum purchase, 79.47.2
18 19
Object 4. Judaea Capta
Lawson of Halifax
Siege of Jerusalem
Wood engraving on laid paper
LIB 77.6.2
Coin 12.
Sestertius of Vespasian showing Judaea Capta
Rome, 71 CE (reproduction)
Composite metal Cups for the circumcision ceremony, Object 6
67.100a
20 21
The Bar Kokhba Revolt
132–136 CE
22 23
The Last of the Pagan Emperors Byzantine and Muslim Judea
270–330 CE 330–1100 CE
235 CE: Imperial Crisis begins 330 CE: Capital of Roman Empire moved to Byzantium,
renamed Constantinople
303 CE: Diocletianic persecution of Christians begins
614 CE: Persians forces, assisted by Jewish rebels from
324 CE: Christianity becomes the dominant religion of mountain cities of Galilee and other areas, first
the Roman Empire take Caesarea Maritima, then Jerusalem
Emperor Aurelian succeeded in reuniting and stabilizing 634 CE: Muslim invasion of Jerusalem led by Omar ibn
the Empire. He was followed by Diocletian, who issued Khattab solidifies Arab control of area
sweeping reforms and reorganized the administration of
1099 CE: Christian crusaders conquer Jerusalem
the provinces. Diocletian actively persecuted Christians
in a long and bloody campaign. Nevertheless, Christianity The Roman Empire was divided into East and West in
became the Empire’s preferred religion under Constantine. 285 CE, and under Constantine in 330 CE the capital
was moved to Byzantium (modern day Istanbul). The
Coin 18. Byzantine emperors who ruled the eastern part of the
Antoninianus Empire maintained control of Judea, persecuting Jews
Cyzicus, Mysia, 276–282 CE and crushing any attempts at uprising or rebellion. How
Silvered bronze ever, in 614 CE, the Sasanian Persian Empire successfully
Gift of Julian Stanford, 79.13.1
invaded Jerusalem, assisted by as many as 20,000 Jewish
Coin 19. rebel soldiers hoping to regain political and religious
Diocletian freedom. Persian rule did not last long—it was overturned
Roman Provincial Mint [possibly Cyzicus], 284–305 CE when an Arab invasion conquered the city in 634 CE.
Bronze
2018.0.1.12
Coin 20.
Bronze Follis, Justinian
Roman Provincial Mint [possibly Constantinople or Cyzicus],
527–565 CE
Bronze
2018.0.1.13
Coins 21.
Byzantine coins
Bronze
80.57.72–79
Diocletian, Coin 19
24 25
CHARLES MICHAEL GALLERY 1. Tsentrizdat. Publishing House for the Central Committee
of the People’s Commissariat of Education with the
Central Council of National Minorities of the Russian
Politics of Jewish Resistance: Federation
di alte shul . . . di rotn shul [The Old School . . . The Red
Eastern Europe, ca. 1905–1930 School]
Yiddish and Russian
Moscow, Soviet Union, 1920–1921
Pogrom is a Russian word that describes concentrated Off-set lithograph on paper
Judah L. Magnes Museum purchase, 75.203
outbreaks of violence against minority groups. It is
commonly used in relation to anti-Jewish attacks that
occurred from 1881 in the Russian Empire, reaching a 2. Lazar Krestin (1868–1938, Lithuania, Germany, Austria,
crescendo of violence in the 1903 “Kishinev Pogrom,” USSR, and Palestine)
and continuing across the region until after the end [Birth of] Jewish Resistance
of the First World War. These events, portrayed in the Vienna, Austria, 1905
international and Jewish press, were immortalized by Oil on canvas
Gift of Alan Sternberg, 84.55
poets, playwrights, and artists worldwide.
Lazar Krestin studied art in Vilnius and Vienna. Among
According to Steven Zipperstein, the meticulous
his teachers was the Austro-Hungarian Jewish painter
documentation of the Kishinev riots would later “inspire
Isidor Kaufman (1853–1921). Jewish Resistance (or Birth
a veritable thicket of myths extending well beyond the
of Jewish Resistance, as the title of the work has also
confines of Jewish communal life, its impact—surprisingly been recorded), was painted in 1905 as a reaction to
enough—felt on endeavors as varied as the prestate the wave of anti-Jewish riots that took place in Eastern
Haganah, or nascent Israeli army, the NAACP, and The Europe following the Kishinev Pogrom in 1903. It stands
Protocols of the Elders of Zion […], the most widely cited out in Krestin’s oeuvre, which is comprised primarily of
antisemitic tract in the world” (Pogrom: Kishinev and portraits and genre scenes of Eastern European Jewish
the Tilt of History, 2018). Pogroms also gave rise to new life. Its two-layered composition conveys a complex
political movements among East European Jews, including narrative, juxtaposing old and young characters. While
socialism, proto-Zionism, and the embrace of the ideals of the young figures in the front are depicted in modern
garb and holding weapons, the men rendered in the
the Soviet revolution.
background represent a passive group of bystanders
from a bygone era. The painter’s use of facial hair
represents the contrast further: the young men in front
of the crowd are clean-shaven, while the older men
cowering in the back have long beards symbolizing
adherence to tradition. Krestin forefronts the Jewish
“new garde,” youthful, modern, politically conscious,
and eager to fight, leaving the past, quite literally, to
disappear behind them.
26 27
3.1 Gezkult (Odessa Section)
di matseh kampanye / dos is a khutspedike spekulyatsye
. . . (The matzah campaign / This is a shameless
speculation . . .)
Yiddish and Russian
Odessa, Soviet Union, Poligraf, n.d. [ca. 1930]
Ink on newsprint paper
Judah L. Magnes Museum purchase, 75.319a
28 29
Soviet Yiddish
30 31
12. yidishn folks-bank (Jewish People’s Bank)
yeder yid dorf vern a mitglid yidishn folks-bank
(Every Jew Must Become a Member of the Jewish
People’s Bank)
Yiddish
Kaunas, Lithuania, Bock and Mankes, circa 1925
Ink on newsprint paper
2015.0.11.35
1. Palphot
Mt. Zion—Jerusalem Entrance to the Tomb of
King David
Israel, n.d. (circa 1955)
Silver gelatin print on cardstock
Gift of Aida and Alvin Hunter, 84.3.9
2. Palphot
Mt. Zion—Jerusalem. Tomb of King David
Ruins of Herodium, Drawer No. 1, No. 1 Herzliya, Israel, n.d. (circa 1955)
Silver gelatin print on cardstock
Gift of Aida and Alvin Hunter, 84.3.4
3. Palphot
Beth She’arim Sarcophagus with Reliefs and a
Human Face
Israel, n.d.
Offset lithograph on cardstock
Gift of Mrs. Mary Schussheim, 85.35.15.24
4. Palphot
Beth She’arim
Israel, n.d.
Offset lithograph on cardstock
Caesarea, Drawer No. 1, No. 3 Gift of Mrs. Mary Schussheim, 85.35.15.4
2. Palphot
Herodium
Israel, n.d.
Offset (color) lithograph on cardstock
Gift of Mrs. Mary Schussheim, 85.35.15.2
3. Palphot
Caesarea: Little folder series
Israel, n.d. (circa 1970)
Offset lithograph on cardstock
Anonymous Gift, 77.67
4. Palphot
Beit She’arim: General View of Hill Showing Excavated
Sites Beth She’arim, Drawer No. 2, No. 4
34 35
DRAWER 3
1. Das Heilige Land zur Zeit Jesu (The Holy Land in the
time of Jesus)
Germany, n.d.
Engraving on paper
2007.0.66
DRAWER 4
36