לאחר שבדצמבר 2012 פרסמתי שתי עדויות על הנסיכה הערבית מקיבוץ רמת יוחנן, למדתי עוד על האומן שאול רסקין. יצרתי קשר עם בית מסחר לספרים נדירים, שאני מכיר מרכישות קודמות -
Hollander Books... ולשמחתי היה לו עותק למכירה של אלבום
היצירות "ארצנו ועמנו" (1947).
מידות הספר: 28 על 38 ס"מ. עוביו, כ- 2 וחצי ס"מ. משקלו, יותר משני ק"ג.
לשלוח ארצה את הספר בן 360 העמודים,
היה עולה לי 48 דולר. משלוח הספר לניו יורק עלה לי ששה דולר
בלבד. משם, הספר הגיע אליי עם קרובי משפחה שהגיעו ארצה לביקור. סה"כ עבר הספר כ-
13,300 ק"מ.
כדי לקבל התרשמות מה מכיל הספר הזה, ראו שתי כתבות שהתפרסמו ב- Ynet
במאי 2007:
להלן ההקדמה לספר, שכתב רסקין בינואר 1947:
Introduction
This book is my thanksgiving to Eretz Israel for the part she
played in my life. The story of my life
can be divided in two, before and after my first visit to Palestine in
1921. I went there with confused
thoughts about myself and my people and returned with a clear conception of my
job in life — to be my people's painter in subject matter and, if it is given
to me, in style… and of my people — to become a nation on its own land. I visited Palestine again in 1924, 1929, 1937
and in 1946. The drawings, paintings and
writings of this volume carry in most cases dates of their execution since
1921. Therefore the differences in
media, technics, and manners.
The three languages used, Yiddish, Hebrew and English are also due
to the different times and circumstances I lived through. There is no seeming consistency in the order
in which the three languages are used — It just happened that way. Cities, colonies, streets, homes, synagogues,
trees, hills, rivers, animals and people, people of all kinds, all of most
engaging shapes, radiating glorious colors and light…
In fact not chronological considerations, but subject matter
determined the organization of the book.
*****
After a short biblical prologue — Abraham receiving the promise of
God to make his seed great and many, he is entering Canaan with mother Sarah at
his side. Another page shows Moses
leading his people out of Egypt, Joshua taking over leadership and, concluding
the prologue, a drawing indicating the end of the biblical period and beginning
of the exile: — The psalm 137 — "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat
down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion"… and the oath: "If I
forget thee Jerusalem"…
An image of Theodore Herzl signifies the start of the present, most
singular event in history of peoples, — the return home after two thousand
years of wandering.
*****
A chapter names Jerusalem with a large number of views of the old
and new city, streets, walls, Wailing wall in its many aspects, Hebrew
University, "Hundred Gates" opens this part of the book. After Jerusalem comes the most remarkable
creation of our days — Tel Aviv, again streets, boulevards, gardens, market
places, theaters and peoples crowding the avenues, busses, seashore,
synagogues, the port of Tel Aviv, meeting halls and schools… a most engaging
composition of extreme modernism and antiquity.
Tempo, temper and temperament seemingly volcanic, but under perfect
control of national conscience and ideals.
Haifa next to Tel Aviv, the most enchanting city with its Carmel
mountains and wide open sea. Streets,
trees and people constantly climbing up hills and stairs.
Tiberius the old and new, consisting of grave stones, hotels and
hot baths.
Safed, a city of old people, old synagogues and old fanciful legends. And Hebron the estranged.
*****
Before turning the pages to my graphic records of colonies and
settlements, several sections are given to the good and poor earth and Children
of Israel. So a chapter deals with the
swift waters of the Jordan, with its most unexpected zigzags. Another chapter is given to trees with my
favorite tree — the Eucalyptus — the one that makes the landscape green and
joyful. A section full of faces of the
Children of Israel in the land of Israel — it is counted that there are seventy
kinds of Jews constituting the Jewish community of the land; each of the
seventy kinds cultivating a peculiar mode of life, dress and talk, — a delight
for the painter and recorder.
One of the largest chapters and my most cherished theme is given to
the synagogues of Palestine. They are
gems, often painfully neglected and seemingly shabby, but when put on paper or
canvas unusually decorative and beautiful in color, tone and construction. They mostly have arched ceilings held up by
ornate columns. They consist of Oren
Kodesh the Arc, with a porechos of a glowing color — it is the heard of the
synagogue… the Omed for the chazen, the Bima for reading the Torah, benches for
the people and the people themselves. I have
in my group of about forty synagogues just touched upon a peculiar treasure of
rich beauty — perhaps the magic key to a Jewish Art.
*****
The Kwutzot, that is collective
workers settlements, are a great force, social and moral, for the land and for
the world; they are the workshop where
forms of human life in its highest aspects are being evolved. To the members of those settlements, men and women,
to the, with love and admiration, to the many kinds of them, coming from all
corners of the troubled world a large section of the book is devoted.
The Holon is a stretch of sandy hills,
south of Tel Aviv, considered to be useless until about twelve years ago. Now it is showing once more what a people can
do when inspired by great historic ideal and driven by despair. It is a sample-piece of what they will do
with the Negev, the desert in the south.
The last twelve pages show my Halutzim
dancing the Hora, that dynamic dance expressing the superabundance of joy of a
young people in process of creation — and old people young again.
In the spirit of the hora I intended
to do my book on Eretz Israel. In fact I
often joined a round of dancers in a Kwutza interrupting the work on my
drawing, with the pencil still in my hand.
And old man — young again.
*****
The book
of the land of Israel is the summing up of all I consider to be my best writing
and drawing done during my five visits there.
Some of the drawings and writings have been already published before,
some have been waiting in my portfolios and sketch books, but most of them are
of recent date.
I hope
that it will be received well by those of whom and by those for whom I recorded
moments of the greatest miracle in the history of Israel.
Written in
January 1947
Saul Raskin
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