Object of the Week: “Rabbi” by Isaac Goody

Isaac Goody
Rabbi
serigraph
30” x 23”
1970s
81.2.185
Gift of Mr. Joseph Elkind

“Passover affirms the great truth that liberty is the inalienable right of every human being…. Pharaoh enslaved a whole race, and was chastised for his crime by the Divine Hand. But in thus intervening between the slave and his oppressor the Almighty fixed His canon against slavery for all time. He thereby declared that every human being has the right to the freedom which will enable him to develop to the utmost all the powers of body, of mind, of soul, with which God has endowed him; and that slavery, therefore, with its debasing effects upon the intellect and the character, is a sin against the laws of God himself.”  – Morris Joseph, Jewish Theologian, excerpt from his book, Passover: Judaism as Creed and Life

Passover is a week-long festival commemorating the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. In Hebrew, it is called Pesach, meaning “to pass over,” as God passed over the homes of Israelites during the tenth plague on the first Passover. This multicolored serigraph print in a graphic style depicts a Rabbi wearing a yarmulke and a tallit, reading from a prayer book. In the background are two rolled Torah scrolls in a Aron Kodesh, or Holy Arc.

Object of the Week: Crucifixio Jesu Christi

Friedrich August Ludy
Crucifixio Jesu Christi
Engraving
13.375” x 17.5”
1852
83.2.137
Gift of Anonymous Donor

“Good Friday is much more than reliving the passion of Jesus; it is entering into solidarity with the passion of all people of our planet, whether in the past, the present, or the future.” – Henri Nouwen

Each year on Good Friday, Christians commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Ludy’s engraving depicts these events. Pontius Pilate is shown a plaque which reads, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS” in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, as Jesus is nailed to the cross in the background. The figure depicted on the far-left kneeling in prayer is artist Johann Friedrich Overbeck who painted the original work on which this engraving is based.