oha 1995
Tykocin synagogue prayer wall, Poland
Art: 1994-95
Media: Ink, watercolor
Size:
Collection: YV Art Museum, Jerusalem. Gift of Alexander Schwarz in memory of his his mother Anna of Vienna, murdered by the Nazis at the Auschwitz death camp; his wife Trudi; and their son Ronnie.
Bibliography: American Society for Yad Vashem, published in color on a tribute card, 2000.
The Jewish Transcript, Seattle: Reproduced in color on the cover of the Sept 10, 1999 issue. It was also reproduced in black & white with the following article, p. 28 (same issue): The Jewish Transcript, Seattle. Sept 10. 1999, page 28: L’SHANA TOVA
On the Cover:
“Tykocin synagogue – Baroque prayer wall”
by Akiva Segan
Special to the Transcript
This artwork has a strong emotional bond for me, for two reasons. First, Tykocin is very near Bialystok in northeast Poland (and for those of you raised in cities with good Jewish bakeries, you know a bialy is a first cousin of the bagel). My grandpa Harry, who died in 1968 when I was 18, grew up in a tiny village outside of Bialystok, and while I don’t think (Oh, how regrettably so!) that ever had a conversation with grandpa, I look back on him with great respect and nostalgia.
The second reason is that I began the drawing in November 1994 and within a week I flew from Seattle to West Palm Beach, Fla., to help care for my dad as he went into his final two months of life. Knowing I’d be spending many long hours sitting in a hospital room, I brought the work with me and completed it there during that ordeal.
The wall, which I drew from a photograph in a book I bought in Poland in 1984 called Polish Jews – Art and Culture, is a remarkable one. For it has this magnificent sculpted relief archway emanating up and out toward the ceiling. While in West Palm, I found a rabbi [correction, March 21, 2019, see note below re: when I was working on the drawing in West Palm*] nearby who kindly examined the photo I was working from. The Hebrew writing on the wall (center left and right) contained memorial prayers for the departed.
The town of Tykocin also appears in Polish Jews: The Final Chapter, written by my late Hillel rabbi, Earl Vinecour, of blessed memory, who died at a very young age in the late 1970’s. [Correction, March 21, 2019 - rabbi Vinecour passed on around 1981]. It was Earl, and a classmate of mine, photography student Chuck Fishman who is now a photographer in New York, who provided me with an interest in Poland and brought me, through their own travels, research and writing, to examine the world of my own Jewish ancestry. A few years later, I myself traveled to Poland and had my life changed.
People in the Seattle Jewish community are telling me now that my life will change dramatically again as I leave on my first trip to Israel in early October. I have been invited to speak and show my artwork at an international conference at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum. The art museum at Yad Vashem may also be the future home of my watercolor, ink and gouache work featured on the cover of this issue of The Jewish Transcript.
Pending a review by the art committee of Yad Vashem’s art museum, the “Tykocin Synagogue, Poland – Baroque prayer wall with memorial prayers” will hopefully be acquisitioned into the Yad Vashem Art Museum collection as a gift from Alexander Schwarz in memory of his dear beloved wife Trudi and their son. The Schwartz family are friends and library patrons of mine at the Magnolia branch of the Seattle Public Library. Refugees from Vienna of the Nazi party, Trudi was sent to England in the late 1930’s where she spent several years working in a private home in the countryside, unhappy but alive. Alex, through the luck of a draw, got out by the skin of his teeth. Eventually settling in Seattle, they owned a dry cleaners on Madison near Seattle University for many years and lost their only son to MS about 15 years ago. Following Trudi’s death a few years back, Alex moved back to Vienna after 60 years to be with his only living relative, a nephew and his spouse, with whom I’ll be staying for a few days on my way to Israel.
[The next paragraph was about my appeal for a donor to help fund framing the drawing for the Yad Vashem collection].
To my fellow readers, I wish you all a terrific Rosh HaShanah, and meaningful days and weeks to follow with Yom Kippur and beyond.
- Akiva Segan
Three post-script notes, March 21, 2019:
The drawing was inspired by a black & white photo in the book Polish Jewry – Art & Culture / Zydzi Polscy - Dzieje i kultura (pub. by Interpress, Warsaw, 1982].|
The photo is on page 135, upper; captioned ‘Tykocin. Wnetrze synagogi przed konsewwacja’ [English: Tykocin synagogue interior before conservation]
One can find both black & white and color photos of interior sanctuary walls at the Tykocin synagogue on the internet.
*When I was working on the drawing in Florida, in late 1994 – early 1995, cantor Jason Bauch of Century Village, W. Palm Beach, provided background info on the prayers from the photo I showed him, late 1994: Hebrew on the left: “A prayer after meals – from Book of Prophets, all prayer book selections.” On the right: “Aramaic – from the Talmud.”