0423 - Everything Old is New Again: Israeliana Collecting of the 1940's - 1970's

Course Description

The establishment of the State of Israel was a monumental moment in Jewish history. It also led to a breakthrough in Jewish art, with the creation of new sorts of ritual pieces. A new type of art emerged that celebrated the traditional images of the new State: Israeliana. Forms feature the Maccabees, the Spies of Joshua, and the flora and fauna of Ancient Israel. Visitors to the newborn and developing state participated in celebrating it by being consumers of “luxury” goods and trinkets: items produced exclusively for the tourist trade, which contributed directly to the new economy. These mass-produced pieces, designed by Israelis, aimed to put Israel’s new identity into the hands of Jews around the world. Visitors to this exciting, newborn, and developing state celebrated it by being consumers of “luxury” goods and trinkets. Bringing these art pieces home, Jews around the world could proudly display what Israel represented to them in, both in practice and in theory.

Dr. Rachael Goldman holds a Ph.D. from the City University of New York-Graduate Center in History. She is the author of “Color-Terms in a Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome” published by Gorgias Press. She has studied at the Summer Classical School at the American Academy in Rome and won awards for the New York Classical School. She has been published in the journal Glotta, the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, the Classical Journal, the Renaissance Quarterly and the Decorative Arts Journal of the Bard Graduate Center. She has taught at Adelphi University, the College of New Jersey, Rutgers College, and at various schools in City University of New York. She completed the Sotheby’s American Fine and Decorative Arts course, and began her career as an appraiser, cataloguing the Asia and Jacobo Furman Judaica Collection. As a specialist for Bonhams, she ushered in the first Judaica sale. Rachael is a certified member of the Appraisers Association of America.