Miami Beach, FL -- May 15, 2003 - South Florida resident Irene Lieblich survived the onslaught of the Holocaust to create evocative paintings that record Jewish life of an era destroyed. One of her oil paintings, "The World of Isaac Bashevis Singer," has been commissioned as a poster commemorating the June 1, 2003 groundbreaking of The Shtetl, a living Museum at Rishon Le Zion, Israel.
The Shtetl Museum is a 67-acre site dedicated to recreating a typical Jewish village that existed prior to World War II. The Shtetl Museum will restore the vestiges of a culture and traditional way of living that was an integral part of Eastern European life. The museum will be comprised of several compounds situated about 5 miles southeast of Tel Aviv in Rishon Le Zion. The State of Israel and Rishon Le Zion donated the $80 million site to The Shtetl Foundation. Prof. Yaffa Eliach is the Founder and Director of the Shtetl Foundation and the driving force behind the museum.
Irene Lieblich grew up in the Polish town of Zamosc, one of many places conquered by the Nazis. She survived the Holocaust and, after settling in the U.S., she developed a life as a wife and mother. However, her childhood memories began to express themselves through the arts. Irene Lieblich wrote poetry which was published in The Foreward, a Yiddish language daily newspaper based in New York City.
Soon thereafter, she began to recreate her memories of village life in oil paintings. When the soon-to-be Nobel Prize winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer saw Lieblich's work at an Artists Equity exhibition in Manhattan, he was captivated by their charm and faithfulness to his own memories of shtetl life. In 1973, Singer invited Lieblich to collaborate by illustrating children's books he was writing. Farrar, Straus and Giroux engaged the then-unknown artist to illustrate A Tale of Three Wishes, published in 1976. A second book, The Power of Light: Eight Stories for Hanukkah, was first published in 1980 and is still in print.
"Her works are rooted in Jewish folklore and are faithful to Jewish life and the Jewish spirit," Singer said of Lieblich in 1976. "Mrs. Lieblich comes from the old Jewish town of Zamosc where she had the opportunity to observe Jewish life as it existed for generations and she is conveying it in her pictures in a naturalistic style which will be a source of true information and inspiration to those who are interested in our life in the old country and even more so to those who like to continue it for generations."
Artist Raphael Soyer praised the book illustrations saying, "Particularly appealing is the simplicity of these realistic yet imaginative and colorful pictures. They convey vividly the spirit of the life told about in the story. Everything has character - the houses, the people in their activities - the market place, the wedding scene. These pictures suit well this imaginative tale and will delight the children."
The Shtetl Museum's flagship poster is Lieblich's imaginary synthesis of Singer's world of the shtetl. The young writer stands in the foreground at lower right, observing a landscape of the shtetl and the people who were to become his characters. Simultaneously, he is shown as a red-haired child on the wings of an angel, floating high above the skies cavorting with the forces of good and evil, a recurring theme in his writings.
Lieblich's daughter Mahli met Prof. Yaffa Eliach in 2000 at a symposium of Holocaust scholars at Oxford University in England, where Eliach spoke of her museum vision. Mahli mentioned her mother's paintings to Prof. Eliach, who vividly remembered Irene Lieblich's shtetl paintings. As plans materialized for the museum, Prof. Eliach commissioned Lieblich's painting, The World of Isaac Bashevis Singer, for the poster commemorating the groundbreaking ceremony.
Giclee reproductions of Lieblich's paintings will be on exhibition at The Meir Nitzan Cultural Center in Rishon Le Zion. The President of Israel, Moshe Kazav, and other world leaders and dignitaries have been invited to attend.
Posters and giclee reproductions will be available for sale at the The Meir Nitzan Cultural Center in Rishon Le Zion after the groundbreaking ceremony. Thereafter, posters will be available through the Shtetl Foundation in Israel and New York. For more information, please contact Irene Lieblich via email at: IreneLieblich@aol.com
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Chronology : IRENE LIEBLICH
1923 Born in Zamosc, Poland, on the second night of Passover, to Chana and Leon Wechter. Her father was in the medical profession. Her only sibling, a brother, was killed during the Holocaust.
1946 Married Jakob Lieblich on a day of persistent rain.
1951 Born: A son

1952 Emigrated from West Germany to Chicago, Illinois.
1953 Born: Daughter.
1955 - 1980 Lived in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry was published in Jewish periodicals during the mid- to late 1960s to early 1970s.
1971 Took up painting at the age of 48.
1971 - 1972 Enrolled in art classes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. After rapid technical development, she was urged by an instructor to "go out there and be an artist."
1972 Won First Prize for painting at the Art Festival of the Farband in New York.
1973 - 1974
Exhibited at Artists Equity, New York, where Isaac Bashevis Singer saw her work.
1976 - 1978 Illustrated two books written by Isaac Bashevis Singer. "Jerusalem of Gold" was reproduced on a greeting card by the Women's Division of the Zionist Organization of America.
1980 Moved to Miami Beach, Florida, where she and Jakob continue to reside.
1995 "Living Memories" exhibition at the Fontainebleau Hilton, Miami Beach, in conjunction with the last formal World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors.

All materials copyright Irene Lieblich © 2002