A sepulchre, a path and many ancient texts (including possible talmudic references) link us to a Jewish man who walked here 2,000 years ago, and who is venerated by millions of people today. Jesus of Nazareth is the theme of a large and impressive exhibition at the Israel Museum. Marking the end of James Snyder's 20-year service as director-general of the museum – as well as chief curator Amitay Mendelssohn's completion of his PhD thesis on the exhibition topic – the show opened three weeks ago and is attracting numerous visitors. “Behold the Man – Jesus in Israeli Art” presents works by Israeli artists as well as non-Israeli Jewish painters, such as Marc Chagall and Maurycy Gottlieb. The show displays a broad range of perspectives on the person who was born, raised, lived and died as a Jew in the Holy Land, yet significantly influenced the history of the world. Unavoidably, history and geography take a high profile in the exhibition. Fittingly, the Israel Museum overlooks the Valley of the Cross. According to Christian tradition, a miraculous tree – made of three different kinds of trees – from this valley was fashioned into a cross that Jesus bore on his back along the Via Dolorosa in the nearby Old City. Portraying the suffering of Jews throughout history, some of the works reflect the inescapable fact that the man's followers frequently and cruelly persecuted his own people. Many of the works depict the scenery of the Holy Land, and more specifically the Holy City, where, according to the Christian tradition, Jesus was tried, killed and buried. In one of the paintings, Jesus is depicted as a young boy studying Torah from his elders. Max Lieberman (1847-1935), a German Impressionist and one of the most famous Jewish artists of his time, painted a 12-year-old blond boy in a white robe and sandals, standing quite sure of himself in front of rabbis and scholars at a beit midrash (Torah study hall) giving his interpretation of a talmudic text. However, out this is a second, censored version of the painting; the original picture depicted a young local boy with dark and curly hair, barefoot and wearing rags. It turns out that the scandal created by the original picture forced the artist to give the young Jesus a makeover, making him look more “respectable.” Aligning his appearance with the Christian tradition caused a departure from the more local and Jewish flavor that Lieberman had in mind. Some of the paintings do depict the local connection – with skin coloration and facial features that diverge from the Caucasian look given to Jesus by European painters. In some paintings, the Jewishness of Jesus is clear – whether as a Jew persecuted in the Diaspora, still wearing his tallit and tefillin (as in Chagall's works); or as a Jew suffering in the Holocaust, as in Moshe Hoffman's works, where the Jewish Jesus, taken off a cross by a Nazi soldier, joins his fellow Jews on their march to death. Abel Pann's (1883-1963) portrayal of Jesus as Isaac bound by his father Abraham was apparently inspired by a painting by Giotto De Bondonna (1267-1337, Italy), in which Jesus is depicted being lamented by one of his disciples – in the same position and setting as in Pann's picture. This takes place, of course, here in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, also known as the Temple Mount. On a sad note, the cover picture, as well as the first picture inside the beautiful catalogue of the exhibition, are works by Israeli artist Moshe Gershuni, who died earlier this week at age 80.
Adi Nes, Untitled (Last Supper).(photo credit: THE ISRAEL MUSEUM)