Chagall’s Jewish Jesus Exhibit at NYC’s Jewish Museum

ALGEMEINER
By Bernard Starr

"The Falling Angel" (1923-47) by Marc Chagall

NEW YORK---Last week I viewed the new exhibit of Marc Chagall’s paintings at New York’s Jewish Museum (Chagall: Love, War and Exile). The show features images of the Jewish Jesus, a subject of great interest to me as the author of the recently published book, Jesus Uncensored: Restoring the Authentic Jew. On entering the first gallery I was surprised to see an orthodox Jew in traditional dress staring at a large painting, The Falling Angel. Set in Chagall’s shtetl, his small Jewish village in Vitebsk, Belarus, this striking work depicts a fiery angel plummeting upside down to Earth, signifying the age of terror for Jews (the Nazi era). The painting also includes an image of Jesus nailed to the cross, a mother embracing a baby, and a frightened rabbi escaping with a Torah scroll. It’s the largest and most impressive painting in the exhibit. [link]