Forty paintings in oils and watercolors by Soviet Jewish activist Natan Feingold, a jobless Moscow aeronautical engineer, and 22 watercolors by his ten year old daughter, Leah, have gone on exhibit at the Chizuk Amuno Synagogue in Baltimore.
About 600 persons visited the exhibit Friday night when it opened. The display will continue at the synagogue this week and then move to the Jewish community center in Baltimore. After three weeks in Baltimore, the art works will be shown in Washington, New York, Atlantic City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and in Toronto and Montreal. Later they will be displayed in London and Paris according to Fabian Kolker of Baltimore who collected the art and arranged the exhibit.
Feingold, 43, look up art after he was fired from his job at an aircraft plant near Moscow six years ago when he applied for visas for himself and his family to go to Israel. Visas were denied him on grounds that he possessed state secrets. Kolker said he was convinced that Fein-gold knew no secrets. Meanwhile, the former engineer is supporting his wife and daughter by taking such jobs as laborer and night watchman, Kolker said.
Kolker, head of a Baltimore lumber company, has visited the Soviet Union five times in the last ten years seeking to help Jews there. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he had met Fein-gold early in Feb. during his last visit to Moscow. He accumulated more than 60 pieces of Fein-gold’s works, nearly all with a Jewish motif. Leah’s works, he said, are largely devoted to her impressions of nature. The art will ultimately be sold to help the Feingold family maintain itself. Kolker said.
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.
