Samuel Hirszenberg, 1865–1908

Richard I. Cohen is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has co-curated two major art-historical exhibitions, one in New York (From Court Jews to the Rothschilds) and one in Paris (Le Juif Errant: Un Témoin du Temps). He is the author of Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe, which was the recipient of the Arnold Wischnitzer Prize for the best book in Jewish history (1999), and has edited and co-edited over fifteen books, many focusing on aspects of Jewish art and history. Two of his co-edited works are published by the Littman Library: The Jewish Contribution to Civilization: Reassessing an Idea (2007), and Insiders and Outsiders: Dilemmas of East European Jewry (2010). Mirjam Rajner is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. Since 2005 she has been co-editor of Ars Judaica, the leading journal on Jewish art and visual culture. She has published numerous articles on Marc Chagall and modern central and east European Jewish art in exhibition catalogues, edited volumes, and academic journals, such as East European Jewish Studies, Images, Jewish Art, Nashim, Studia Rosenthaliana, and Studies in Contemporary Jewry. She is the author of Fragile Images: Jews and Art in Yugoslavia,1918–1945 (2019), and is currently co-editing a collection of articles entitled Crossing Borders: Jewish History and Culture in Southeastern Europe.

• Introduction1. Łódź: The Beginning2. Kraków: Hirszenberg’s First Steps as an Artist3. Coming of Age in Munich 4. The Years of Wandering: Paris, Łódź, and Munich5. Success in Łódź6. The Poznański Palace Commission7. From Łódź to Kraków8. Jerusalem: The Final Destination9. Hirszenberg’s LegacyEpilogue: Hirszenberg—the Man, the ArtistBibliographyIndex

‘Hirszenberg is a fascinating and important artist who deserves to be known more widely, The authors have produced an authoritative volume about his life and work, his studies and travels, his patrons and fellow artists, opening a most interesting window on the world of Polish Jews and their various milieux—Jewish, Polish, and European—during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The intellectual approach is sophisticated and speaks to current concerns in the social and cultural history of art more generally.’ Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator, Core Exhibition, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw