(Founder of the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem). Di Geboyte Yerushalayim: A Chalom oyf’n Vohr [“Rebuilt Jerusalem: A Day-Dream”]

Schatz, Boris

Hebrew Publishing Company

New York

(1925)

FIRST YIDDISH EDITION. Frontispiece portrait of the Author

“Boris Schat’z exile on the shores of the Sea of Galilee during World War I, was a time of fruitful contemplation and writing. He composed this fictional story, set in Palestine one hundred years in the future, which offered a sublime alternative to the miserable reality of strife and struggle that had engulfed him in recent years. His utopian novella, was a programmatic manifesto written acording to the conventions of the then popular literary genre of the futuristic novel. The story opened with the Biblical artisan Bezalel ben Uri miraculously appearing at the Bezalel School one day in the midst of the war and inviting Schatz on a tour of Palestine in the year 2018 (see p. 108). This device allowed the author to present a detailed description of Bezalel and the Land of Israel of the the future.” Israel Museum Catalogue, Boris Scahtz: The Father of Israeli Art (2006) p. 27