30 October 2024

Lecture by Svetlana Panich „Discovery of Jewish Jesus. From Moses Mendelsohn to Marc Chagall“

Thursday, November 7 at 6 p.m. we invite you to the lecture of Svetlana Panich, a scientist from Canada, „Discovery of Jewish Jesus. From Moses Mendelsohn to Marc Chagall“.  The lecture will take place at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library (Gedimino av.24). Entrance is in the courtyard of Vilnius Small State Theatre.

Lecture in English. Admission free.

The changes that occurred in Jewish culture during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries under the influence of Haskalah movement stimulated a widespread interest to the figure of Jesus among Jewish  intellectuals, writers, and artists.  A shift from the negative attitude to Jesus to the attempts to inscribe his figure into Jewish history, to see him as “a Jew in his blood and his vision” (Uri Zvi Greenberg). A “brother in sufferings” brought to the discovery of Jewish Jesus, especially spectacular not only in theological and political thought, but in the Jewish art of the 20th century.

What were the main trends of this discovery? How theological ideas of Moses Mendelson echoed centuries later in the art of Maurycy Gottlieb, Max Lieberman, Marc Antokolsky and Marc Chagall? Why Marc Chagall – he will be the main character of this talk – was so obsessed by the depiction of the Crucifixion? Following the history of reclamation of Jewish Jesus, we will look attentively at Chagall’s crucifixions, starting from his early pencil drawing of 1910 up to his “Mystical Crucifixion” of 1950, trying to think together, why for the one of the “most Jewish” artists of the XXth century figure of Jesus was the most powerful metaphor of sacrifice and suffering of Jewish people as well as a symbol of “deepening of the pain of every single individual”, as Chagall’s biographer Franz Meyer wrote.

Svetlana Panich  –  researcher of the Jewish Christianity, coordinator of the International Working group on Jewish-Christian dialog, translator from English, Polish, Ukrainian. Presently lives in Toronto (Canada).

Briefly about the event

Date

7 November

Time

6 pm

Place

Vilnius Jewish Public Library (Gedimino av. 24)
Entrance is in the courtyard of Vilnius Small State Theatre

Duration

2 h

Attendance

free

Important

the lecture will be held in English

More information

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