Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Always a German but No Less a Jew Says Professor Max Lieber-mann Greatest Living Jewish Painter in M

September 12, 1931
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Professor Max Liebermann, the great painter and President of the Berlin Academy of Art, who recently attained his 84th. birthday, has written to the Mayor of Tel Aviv, Mr. Mayer Dizengoff, who is also President of the Tel Aviv Museum, established in memory of his wife, expressing appreciation of the message of congratulation transmitted to him by the Mayor on behalf of the Jews of Palestine on the occasion of his 84th. birthday.

Your greetings on my 84th. birthday have given me great pleasure, Prcfessor Liebermann writes, and I want to thank you and all in Palestine who are interested in art. Art knows no boundaries, religious on political, but it is different with artists who are bound together by ties of religion and of homeland. I have always felt myself a German, but no less a Jew. I regard it therefore as a great honour that the Palestinian artists have expressed to me through you, their President, their affection for my artistic creations.

The famous German writer, Herbert Eulenberg, sent me on my birthday a copy of his book on Palestine, containing an enthusiastic appreciation of the Zionist cons truction work. This appreciation deserves to be specially noted, since the author is a Catholic. Though I am not a Zionist myself – I belong to an earlier generation – I follow with close interest the noble aspirations of Zionism, Professor Liebermann concludes, and I send you my wishes for further development and prosperity.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement