Statuary Style

November 8, 2008 - 11:13 PM by DavidS

Jews aren’t big on statues – you won’t find too many bronzed generals on horseback in Israel – although I actually found one, of this guy (http://tinyurl.com/6bu5mp). What monuments there are dedicated to a person or group are generally abstract sculptures, where you can kind of make out the human form (http://tinyurl.com/553nyu), or completely symbolic, like http://tinyurl.com/5vfzux. The long ingrained strictures against graven images run deep in the Israeli psyche, to the extent that you won’t even find images of people on Israeli coinage (a special edition of a five shekel coin with the blurred image of Maimonides raised some eyebrows a few years ago, though).
donquixote110708.jpg
There does seem to be one outlet for statuary that appears to be acceptable in Israel – sculptured topiary, made out of a bushes and shrubs. I’ve seen “statues” of birds, rabbits, cows, even people. And then we have this prime example: Don Quixote (know as “Don Kishot” in Hebrew) in a Petach Tikvah high tech center. The Spanish hero sits atop a horse – much like this “real” statue (http://tinyurl.com/6j6luh). Next to Don at this industrial park (not seen) is a topiary of his sidekick, Sancho Panza. Topiaries don’t seem to have raised the hackles of those most likely to feel uncomfortable with statues (religious Jews), maybe because their not “etched in stone,” so to say.

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Comments

One Comment on Statuary Style

  1. David-Joe on Sun, Nov 9th 2008 3:20 AM

    2. There is tulmudic wisdom to be recognized in the graven images rejection. It is rejection of domination and dictatorship.

    The well known Jewish independent attitude is the expression of freedom that is supported by Jewish culture.

    From the lesson of the Exodus, and the aversion of graven images, the questioning and debating rather than obedience other than to worship God and the demonstration when Issac is saved from dacrifice, that sacrificial acts are not just and the unique action of Judaism that rejects evangelical acts to convert people to be Jews.

    The thread here illuminates the lessons of learned, support the socio-economic system of proper capitalism and individual liberty rather than collectivism and any form of facism and socialism.

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