Page 366 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Portraits: historical

Stone does not allow the kind of whittled detail AR wanted to
carve; in that regard the contrast between the two renditions is
most striking. The eleven figures lined up against the temple
wall in no. 89 occupy only half the height of the piece, and are
rather similar despite some variations in height and costume;
thus each devotee is doubly diminished, in scale and in detail.
The total effect is unsatisfactory, and one is left to wonder how
much time elapsed before the sculptor returned to his subject
with a more workable medium in hand.

The wooden piece is a perfectly square low-relief with a thick
rounded border mimicking mitered molding, making the
central surface recede spatially into the remoter plane and
temporally into the historical context of a heavily-framed
painting. The praying figures are fewer in number and larger in
relation to the amount of wall portrayed than in the stone
plaque, creating a more intimate atmosphere and giving scope
to greater detail. The five devotees are not wailing or davening,
but standing shoulder-to-shoulder in silent meditation, their
backs to the viewer. They are facing both the past glories and
future hopes of Israel, a perfect image embodying the Zionist
dream.

Despite being trapped in a frozen tableau, these Jews exude an
air of respect and humility—enhanced by the privacy conveyed
by a turned back. They are in different costume, implying a
variety of national origins and Judaic sects; thus the work
reflects both the Law of Return, welcoming Jews of all stripes
to their homeland, and the new theocracy functioning in its
early days as a liberal democracy encouraging pluralism.
Further, one of the figures is a woman: under Jordanian rule,
the sexes mingled at the wall. Ironically, once the state of Israel
gained total control of Jerusalem, mechitzah was imposed,
separating men and women at the wall. AR’s representation is,
therefore dated—but accurate for its time.

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