Current Exhibit
June 5 – September 7, 2008

Paul Goldman
“To Return to the Land…”

Photographs Of The Birth Of Israel

In recognition of the 60th Anniversary
of the State of Israel

Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, 1943 -  Photo by Paul Goldman
From the collection of Spencer M. Partrich/Photo Art Israel

 First Stop of New York’s 
Museum of Jewish Heritage –A Living Memorial to the Holocaust 
Nationally Touring Exhibit

 Hungarian-born photojournalist Paul Goldman documented Israel’s life before statehood, during the War of Independence, and during her first golden years. The photographs are complemented by rich memories of individuals who lived through those same events, together telling stories of the birth of Israel. From Tel Aviv streetscapes to the bombing of the King David Hotel, from street vendors to prime ministers; both the extraordinary and every-day illustrate this monumental story.

“He stood with his camera by the cradle of the state in the making,” Newsweek photographer Shlomo Arad said of Paul Goldman. “To Return to the Land…” Paul Goldman’s Photographs of the Birth of Israel was curated by the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and opened February 17 in New York City. It makes its first stop on a national tour at the Oregon Jewish Museum in Portland.

Highlights of the exhibition include more than 35 images culled from a collection of negatives that lived in a shoebox until they were rediscovered in recent years. The photos are on loan from the collection of Spencer M. Partrich. The exhibition will feature such inspiring images as the one of future Israelis toiling the land of a Kibbutz in 1943 (above); and heartbreaking images such as one of Holocaust survivors arriving at a detention camp in 1945.

This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of
Spencer M. Partrich/Photo Art Israel,
with additional funding provided by Harvey M. Krueger.

About Paul Goldman

Goldman, born in 1900, fled Budapest in 1940 to escape the spreading threat of Nazism. He worked as a freelance photographer for local newspapers and international news services during the 1940s and 1950s. His role as a member of the British Army, and later as a confidant to important Israeli leaders, provided him with privileged access and a front-row view to Israel’s growing pains. Unfortunately, Goldman’s eyesight failed him in the early 1960s — he died penniless at the age of 86 in Israel. Sadly, he never was able to see Israel’s physical beauty beyond her adolescence. 

While Goldman was one of only a few photojournalists working in the British Mandate of Palestine in the 1940s, he remains largely unknown, mostly because of the practice at the time of not including photo credits in newspapers. His work was beautifully composed and restrained, as Jewish Week writes, “This supreme sensitivity makes Goldman’s photographs
a small miracle in today’s world of extreme close-ups and telephoto lenses, and they make for interesting, almost prosaic constructions, rich with tensions between public and private.”

About the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living memorial to the Holocaust

The Museum’s three-floor Core Exhibition educates people of all ages and backgrounds about the rich tapestry of Jewish life over the past century—before, during, and after the Holocaust.  Special exhibitions include Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust, on view through July 4; and Sosúa: A Refuge for Jews in the Dominican Republic on view until July 25. The Museum offers visitors a vibrant public program schedule in its Edmond J. Safra Hall. It is also home to Andy Goldsworthy’s memorial Garden of Stones, as well as James Carpenter’s Reflection Passage, Gift of The Gruss Lipper Foundation. The Museum receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and is a founding member of the Museums of Lower Manhattan.