FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 2012
Contact: Holland Dieringer, Gallery
Director
Phone: (617) 353-7634
The Rubin-Frankel Gallery
Florence and Chafetz Hillel House
213 Bay State Road – 2nd
Floor
Boston, MA 02215
The Wolloch Haggadah Exhibit Approved with Funding
April 3 – June 29, 2012
Opening Reception: Tuesday, April 3, 2012
(6:00–8:00pm)
The Haggadah is a collected work of
blessings, prayers, and excerpts from the Bible, Mishnah, and Midrash. Commissioned
by the Wolloch family, The Wolloch
Haggadah is a compilation of 36 hand-printed original lithographs signed by
the artists, illustrator David Wander and calligrapher Yonah Weinreb. These
images, taken out of the traditional book format, link the ancient redemption
from Egypt to the Holocaust, and honor memories of those who perished during
World War II.
The exhibit (opening reception on Tuesday, April 3 from 6:00-8:00pm) will be
open during Passover and on the day of remembrance of the Holocaust, Yom
Ha’Shoa. The deeply expressive images
illustrate the relatively recent calamity of the Holocaust, juxtaposing the
original texts of the Haggadah that articulate Israel’s prior enslavement. Previously, The Wolloch Haggadah collection was featured at Duke University and
by New York Times. The collection honors the remembrance of past hardships and evokes
thoughts of a hopeful and just future.
About the Haggadah, Richard McBee describes
it as “…a tale of transformations shown through a visual translation of
the traditional text. Just as the bread of affliction becomes the
matzah of freedom, so too, in his images, the tattered yellow star, a badge of
shame, becomes the Israeli flag of pride. All of our treasured sons
become treasured books. And just as our imperative to remember our
Egyptian bondage and the eventual redemption, so too we must remember the
horrors and degradation of the Holocaust and see in the creation of the state of
Israel its redemption. It is therefore entirely fitting that
the title page of the Holocaust Haggadah contains this
quotation from the Baal Shem Tov: ‘Forgetfulness leads to
exile, while remembrance is the secret of redemption.’”
Event sponsored by Boston University’s
Jewish Cultural Endowment and Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.
About The Rubin-Frankel Gallery
The Rubin-Frankel Gallery is located at 213 Bay State Road, on
the second floor of the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House at Boston University.
A non-profit educational gallery, the Rubin-Frankel features 4-6 Fine Arts
exhibitions every year addressing a wide variety of content that speaks to
enriching our students' social, cultural, educational, religious and political
lives. The Rubin-Frankel was built
through funding made possible by arts philanthropist Felicia Rubin and is
maintained solely through a series of grants and the support of private donors.
