From the Isar to Jerusalem
Gabriella Rosenthal  (1913–1975) – Drawings

An Exhibition by the New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum in Cooperation with the Jewish Museum Munich.

The Exhibition
IInspired by the French illustrator Honoré Daumier, Wilhelm Busch and also Walter Trier, Gabriella Rosenthal’s works take an everyday, amusing, and affectionate look at the dynamic and diverse life in Jerusalem between 1935 and 1955. At the same time she makes references to her Bavarian past with subtle humor. Her drawings capture representatives of all ethnic groups, religions, and social classes living in Jerusalem. Her sketches take a tongue-in-cheek look at everyday scenes surrounding her without omitting or glossing over political problems in the process.

Gabriella Rosenthal, born in Munich, furthered her artistic talent as a youth. While helping out in the antiquarian bookshop run by her grandfather, Jacques Rosenthal, she was able to gain a greater appreciation of art while, at the same time, improving her artistic and linguistic skills.
In 1935 she married the writer and publisher of religious texts, Fritz Rosenthal, who was later known under the name Shalom Ben-Chorin. Immediately after her wedding the couple, both ardent Zionists, emigrated to Jerusalem where Gabriella Rosenthal began to record her utterly new everyday life in pictures. She successfully published her drawings as well as her pointed, feuilleton-style texts in various papers. In addition she published a cookbook of Arab recipes, made designs for ceramic tiles, illustrated an Esther scroll and worked as a drawing teacher and tourist guide.

Curator
Chana Schütz

Project coordination
Lilian Harlander

Scenography
Amelie Thierfelder

Download the exhibition leaflet now