East London Three Faiths Forum Tour of the Holy Land: Art

Tzfat with its 'quaint alleyways, stone buildings, blue painted doorways' and 'tradition as a mystical city', has 'attracted artists from all over Israel and the world' and has created an 'artist colony in the heart of the city's Old City'. As Tzfat is 'known throughout the world as the city of Kabbalah', many of the artists located there 'devote their creative energy towards art influenced by this mystical religious text'. The Hasidic influenced art of Marc Chagall has also provided clear inspiration for some of Tzfat's artists. Chagall himself painted an interior of Tzfat's synagogues, one of which is now in The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

While in Tzfat I discovered the work of Asia Katz, who was born in Bulgaria. She moved to Israel in 1991 and came directly to Tzfat. 'Although she previously studied and worked exclusively in photography, once in Israel she began to experiment with different styles of drawing and painting which can be seen today in her gallery'. 'Asia combines multiple styles to create modernistic, cubist-styles drawings and paintings. She employs various approaches with her works including traditional, modern, folk and contemporary art styles. Asia’s paintings and drawings concentrate on exploring people and objects and their interaction with each other and the world around them.' 'She paints and draws in a way that encourage the viewer to look at a work in different ways so as to see it from a fresh point of view at each viewing.'

Designed by the architect Giovanni Muzio, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth is built on two levels. The architect conceived a plan of two churches, one above the other and interconnected: the lower or crypt on the level of the former churches, and the upper church. The lower preserves the Holy Grottos and the remains of the Byzantine and Crusader churches. The roof opens in a starlike lantern in the centre of the upper church to which there is access by a stairway. The upper Church is the Latin Parish Church of Nazareth. This new basilica, the largest Christian sanctuary in the Middle East, was dedicated in 1964 by Pope Paul VI during his historic visit to the Holy Land, and consecrated on 23 March 1969.

Fathers Bellarmino Bagatti, O.F.M., and Emmanuel Testa, O.F.M., worked with Muzio and a group of theologians to plan the artwork in the Basilica. More than 20 countries or regions on five continents accepted an invitation to provide copies of locally honoured images of Mary. Together, these images provide a powerful reminder of the universal, multicultural face of God’s people on whose behalf Jesus suffered, died and rose from the dead. The artwork inside and outside the Basilica of the Annunciation reflects an inculturated universality. Among the artists who contributed work are Justin O'Brien, Fr. Engelbert Mveng and Luke Hasegawa.

The windows of the south and west façades represent various elements of the Annunciation and were realised by the Parisian artist Max Ingrand. The windows in the lower church are the work of Lydia Roppolt and were a gift from Austria. The windows of the dome are made of concrete and coloured glass by the Swiss painter Yoki Aebischer and represent: the Apostles, the Saints Joachim and Anna, Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

The light that emanates from twelve stained glass windows by Marc Chagall bathes the Abbell Synagogue at the Hadassah University Medical Center in a special glow. 'The synagogue's Jerusalem stone floor and walls absorb this beauty and reflect it.' 'The Bible was Chagall's main inspiration, particularly Genesis 49, where Jacob blesses his 12 sons, and Deuteronomy 33, where Moses blesses the Twelve Tribes. The dominant colors used in each window are inspired by those blessings as well as by the description of the breastplate of the High Priest in Exodus 28:15, which was described as gold, blue, purple and scarlet, and contained 12 distinct gems. Each gem was dedicated to a tribe with the tribe's name engraved on it.'

'To fully understand the significance of the Windows they must be viewed against Chagall's deep sense of identification with the whole of the Jewish history, its tragedies and victories, as well as his own personal background in the shtetl of Vitebsk, where he was born and grew up. "All the time I was working," he said, "I felt my father and my mother were looking over my shoulder, and behind them were Jews, millions of other vanished Jews of yesterday and a thousand years ago."' After our visit I spoke to our group about Chagall's background and work highlighting the fact that these windows inspired commissions for stained glass in the UK at Tudeley Parish Church and at Chichester Cathedral.

Yad Vashem is one of the world's largest concentrations of peace monuments and sculptures including the Children's Memorial, the Pillar of Heroism, From Holocaust to Rebirth and Hall of Names. Yad Vashem’s collection of Holocaust art is the largest and most wide-ranging collection in the world. It comprises some 10,000 works, most of them from the Holocaust period. The new Holocaust Art Museum exhibits the world's largest collection of art created in ghettos, camps, hideouts, and other places where artistic endeavour was nearly impossible. These works reflect the very spirit of the victims and survivors. Creating art during the Holocaust meant risking one’s life at a time when the materials needed were almost non-existent, and many of the artists were on the verge of collapse — physically and mentally — without access to even the most minimal essentials of daily life. In spite of all this, the piece was created, and sometimes managed to survive even when — as was mostly the case — the artist did not. Among those artists whose work features at Yad Vashem are Naftali Bezem, Carol Deutsch, Felix Nussbaum and Bruno Schultz.

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Ofra Haza - Trains Of No Return.