[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]
The question whether a Jewish citizen who is being sued or tried is bound to appear in court if ordered on a Jewish High holiday, when he is forbidden by his religion to write or transact business, has aroused attention in Austria as a result of a recent sentence of one months’ imprisonment handed down by a Vienna court against a Jewish engineer whose religious convictions caused him to refuse to appear in court on a Jewish holiday in a case in which he is involved. An appeal against this court decision has been filed with a higher court and the outcome of the case is awaited with great interest by the Jews in Austria, we learn from “Die Warheit,” German Jewish paper of Vienna.
Pointing out the importance of the case, “Die Warheit” observes: “It is to be hoped the decision of the higher tribunal will be in accord with justice and common sense. For it is impossible that the law which punishes severely any hindrance or infraction of religious tolerance and freedom should make it a duty for one to violate his own religion; it cannot at once protect with its authority the feelings of the adherents of all denominations and outrage these same feelings on the part of a religious Jew by forcing him to transgress one of the laws of his faith.”
IS THERE A JEWISH ART?
There is no Jewish art because the Jews have never demanded an art, is the contention put forth in the Art World Magazine of the Chicago “Evening Post” by Meyer Levin, who discusses the question of Jewish art in connection with the impending exhibition of “work of Jewish artists,” including works from France, England, Germany, Switzerland and the United States, to be held by the Jewish Women’s Art Club in Chicago.
“They (the Jews) have never demanded an art,” we are told, “in the sense that the Greeks demanded their art, in the sense that the Italians demanded their frescoes, in the sense that the French demanded their architecture.
“The Jews are beginning to demand an art, and a Jewish art is beginning to grow.
“Epstein makes his statues for Englishmen, Chagall had to seek recognition from the French rather from the Jews. Szvarc had recreated the Jewish art of hammering biblical bas-reliefs of brass–and starves, because Jews will not buy his work.
“It is significant that the Jewish Women’s Art club calls its exposition an exhibition of work of Jewish artists. It is a very representative collection.
“But is this one art?
“Will the Jews demand of their artists that they build them new temples? For it is only by imposing restrictions on artists that the creation of an art is made possible.
“It is encouraging to note, in this direction, that there is such a thing as a Jewish women’s art club, and that there is an exhibition of work of Jewish artists. But what will become of this work? Who will buy?”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
