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By Irvin Ungar

Arthur Szyk (b. Łódź, Poland, 1894, d. New Canaan, CT, 1951) came to America in 1940. Known as a great miniaturist painter and political artist in Europe, Szyk also illustrated numerous fine limited edition art books in Paris in the 1920s. His magnum opus was his Passover Haggadah, first published in London in 1940, and reproduced numerous times since. In the United States Szyk became most well-known as a leading anti-Nazi artist—a self-described “soldier in art”— and as the foremost creator of art advocating for the establishment of the State of Israel. A staunch activist for social justice, Szyk supported and was involved in numerous activist organizations, including: the American Cancer Society; the British American Ambulance Corps; many of Peter Bergson’s political groups fighting for the rescue of European Jewry; and Hadassah youth aliyah. He also was a member of the National Committee of the Jewish Book Council of American during the presidency of Mortimer Cohen.

During World War II, Szyk’s art appeared everywhere—from the covers of Collier’s and Time magazines, to The New York Times and New York Post, to exhibitions at more than 500 USO army bases, to billboards in Times Square and even the cover of the Manhattan telephone directory. He frequently exhibited at New York’s finest art galleries, raising funds for the Allies. Eleanor Roosevelt befriended Szyk and his wife, and wrote about him regularly in her newspaper columns. Even with all this activity, in 1943 Szyk found time to create his first poster for Jewish Book Council, which showed a helmeted American soldier seated, reading a Jewish book while balancing a machine gun on his lap. This work also was used as the wartime cover for the 1943–1944 Jewish Book Annual and reproduced as bookmarks.

Following World War II Szyk returned to book illustration, which included numerous commissions by the Limited Editions Club. In 1946 he collaborated with Rabbi Mortimer J. Cohen, President of the Jewish Book Council, to illustrate Pathways Through the Bible for the Jewish Publication Society. In that same year, for the Jewish Book Month poster, Szyk illuminated the saying by 12th century Jewish scholar Judah ibn Tibbon: “Books shall be thy companions; book cases and shelves, thy pleasure-nooks and gardens.” In addition to its appearance as a poster, this work of art served as the cover for the Jewish Book Annual that year and was reproduced on bookmarks. Szyk’s illumination was featured by the Council several times before the artist’s death.