Obj. ID: 33193
Modern Jewish Art  Joseph Budko, Illustration for Bialik's "The Short Friday" (Yom Shishi haKatzar), 1923

The following description was written by the researcher Alec Mishory.

The complex relationship between the artist and the poet during their mutual work on the Jubilee Edition, summed up in Budko's woodcut illustration for Bialik's story The Short Friday (Yom Shishi haKatzar).

The story relates to a trip taken by the old rabbi Lipa, strictly adhering to the Jewish laws. He exaggerated in his worries and concerns so much that he violated a prohibition not to travel on Sabbath in the most ridiculous way and desecrated Sabbath in front of his entire community.

The illustration sums up the story's last paragraph by a depiction of the embarrassing moment when Rabbi Lipa enters a town in his carriage on Sabbath and the whole crowd witnesses his disgrace. The artist has set for us a close vantage point - thanks to the truncating frame we see the townhouses, behind the carriage. The body language and facial expressions of Rabbi Lipa and his coachman make a striking contrast. Budko is extremely sensitive to human behavior: the Rabbi's mood is depicted by his lifted shoulders, by the twisting of his mouth and by his radically wide opened eyes. The Rabbi conveys precise visual documentation of gestures and facial expressions that we usually make while saying to ourselves: 'Damn! What have I done?'. In contrast, the coachman does not seem to be embarrassed at all; his facial expression conveys, perhaps, "Yes, this is so", or, "I am taking no part in what has happened here". He is not indifferent to the scene, but his body language may testify that he is not responsible for anything caused by the Rabbi's orders.

The coachman is a self-portrait of the artist. The inclusion of a self-portrait into a series of prints is customary among artists. It is an accepted way "to sign" their works. The intriguing and the most interesting aspect in the case like this is the artist's choice whose mask to wear. Among all the figures portrayed in his illustrations for Bialik's poems and stories, Budko identified himself with that of Rabbi Lipa's coachman. One may conclude that through the illustration for The Short Friday Budko gives a hint on a similarity that exists between the Rabbi's stubbornness and unwillingness to admit his mistakes and those of the poet's. The artist's identification with the coachman, the Rabbi's employee, seems to suggest something about the relationship between him and the poet laureate.