Customer Reviews

Carved Memories

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In conjunction with the show at The Brooklyn Museum of Art this Winter, Rizzoli has published the photos by the Russian photographer, David Goberman, aged 88, which he took from the 1930s through the 1960s of Jewish gravestones. The photos document the vanishing art of stone carvers and highlights themes of folk art and spiritual belief. The photos also provide a timeless record of Jewish tradition in the Ukraine and Moldova. Intricately carved motifs include crowns of the Torah, signs of the Kohanim (split fingers), birds, fallen fruit, a single candle, a broken tree and three small chicks (for the mother who dies leaving three young children), fish, deer, unicorns, bear, lions, and fighting lions. Those with menorahs, grapes and water jugs usually represented Levites. Peacocks represent paradise. An excellent book to cherish and learn from.

There are over 100 photographs of tombstones from Jewish towns (shtetls) in Ukraine and Moldova taken by a Russian photographer surreptitiously during the 1950's and 1960's in the Soviet Union. The images range from lions and dragons to seahorses and rabbits -- Jewish stonecarvers used the stones for artistic expression, as well as text to describe the deceased (translated in detail on many stones). The book was published to coincide with an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum that opens on January 13 and runs through April. Many of the stones shown here were torn up during the Stalin regime and used to make factory steps or fish ponds, so this is the only historical record.