10 POEMES DE MOYSHE LEYB HALPERN ILLUSTRATIONS ET BOIS ORIGINAUX DE PINCHAS SCHAAR Traduits du Yiddish par E. Rais et D. Jassine. Ten poems by the Yiddish poet Moshe Leib Halpern [1886-1932] from New York, accompanied by original woodcuts by Pinchas Shaar published by Editions des Poètes 1955 - a dedicated and signed copy by the illustrator Pinchas Shaar.
Pinchas Shaar [1923-1996] was born in Poland as Pinchas Schwartz in a traditional home but with a general education. His father was the chairman of the Union of Jewish Carpenters in Lodz. As a teenager he was a member of the Hashomer HaTsair movement. He graduated the gymnasium in 1938 in Lodz, and went on to study painting with Władysław Staszminski, one of the great Polish painters. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the Polish army in the 18th regiment. During the battles, he was captured by the Germans, but managed to escape to territory that was under Russian control, and his mother and sister stayed in Lodz to guard the family property. When the condition of his mother and sister worsened, Shaar, along with his father and brother, decided to return to the ghetto to try to rescue his mother and sister. They managed to sneak into the ghetto, but were unable to get out, and had to stay there. Shaar worked in the ghetto as an artist in the 'Statistica' office, and in this context he illustrated the Lodz ghetto stamps. When the ghetto was liquidated in August 1944, Sha'ar managed to get the family into a group of about 500 families that were left behind to clean up the ghetto. After about a month and a half, they were taken by train to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and then to the Koenig-Wosterhausen camp where they stayed until their liberation by the Russian army.
After World War II he came to Germany in 1945, where he lived in IDP camp. In 1947 he moved to Munich, where he joined the Yiddish Theater as a scenery painter. In 1947 he went to Paris, where he studied for two and a half years at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere. Shaar visited Israel for the first time in 1949, and stayed in Israel for four months. He then immigrated to Israel in 1951 but continued to divide his time between Paris and Israel. In 1956 he signed a four-year contract with Benzit Gallery. At the same time he painted scenery for plays in the Chamber Theater. In 1975 Shaar moved to live with his family in Manhattan, where he lived until his death.
Moshe Leib Halpern [1886-1932] modernist Yiddish poet, editor and essayist. Born in 1886 to a religious family in Zelotsov in Galicia. He immigrated to the United States in 1908, where he started a family. In New York he belonged to the group of poets "De Young". Died in 1932, at the age of 46.
folder: 39 cm. Very good condition.
