Obj. ID: 35306
Jewish printed books  Aleph - Bet by Levin Kipnis, Berlin, 1923

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

Alef-Bet, drawings by Ze'ev Raban, verses by Levin Kipnis, Bezalel-Jerusalem. Berlin: "Hasefer", 1923. Remarkable paintings by Ze'ev Raban, in intense bordeaux and blue, with golden decorations. Printing of good quality on heavy paper. One of the nicest Hebrew "Alef-Bet" books ever printed.
One of the most beautifully illustrated and produced aleph-bet books, presenting Hebrew letters in a particularly elegant manner. The graphics were done by Zeev Raban, a leading painter, decorative artist and industrial designer of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem, and one of Eretz Israe'ls most famous artists. Raban's large colorful pictures accompany short rhymes by Levin Kipnis, who was a children’s poet and author, and, like Raban, a student at Bezalel. Each letter has a colored illustration of an animal or item and a rhyme beginning with that letter.
Zeev Raban was born in Poland, and moved to Eretz Israel in 1912 under the influence of Boris Schatz, founder of the Bezalel Academy. He joined the faculty of the Bezalel school, and soon took on a central role there as a teacher of repoussé, painting, and sculpture. He also directed the academy's Graphics Press and the Industrial Art Studio. By 1914, most of the works produced in the school's workshops were of his design. He continued teaching until 1929. He then established a graphics workshop and worked at providing an enormous number of commercial designs into the 1950's.
Raban is regarded as a leading member of the Bezalel school art style, in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist themes in a style influenced by the European jugendstil (similar to Art Nouveau) and by traditional Persian and Syrian styles.
Kipnis was born in Ushomir (now in Ukraine), and emigrated to Eretz Israel in 1913. Having already decided to become a writer, he continued his arts education at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. The lack of content for children of kindergarten age convinced him to write songs suited for preschoolers. After having published three children's books in Germany (1922), he returned to Eretz Israel in 1923 (the year of this book's publication) and began teaching at the Levinsky Teacher's College in Tel Aviv. Kipnis's writing is characterized by a light and happy style, devoid of pathos, yet rich and aesthetic. His collections in Hebrew encompass about 800 stories and 600 poems. He also wrote Hebrew songs, and published children's books in Yiddish.
Ornate title page with 22 illustrated roundels, each representing one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
32 pp.