Today is both Thanksgiving and the second night of Hanukkah. Best wishes to you and yours on this unique celebration of Thanksgivukkah!
This photograph is perfect for posting today both because of the subject portrayed in the painting and because I am thankful for all the help that made it possible for me to share it here.
The brief story: In April I gave a talk at Bet Haverim in Davis, California. After the talk there were several questions about how others might help the project – to crowd source the research. One such offer of help came from a woman who had a connection to a Fulbright scholar in Warsaw. Ultimately this scholar visited the Warsaw library to track down a Polish-Zionist newspaper, Nasz Przeglad, published in the inter-war years that was known to contain several images of my great-grandfather’s work. Below is one of the images he found – a piece titled, “Chanuka.” The title across the top translates as: “The Light of the Maccabees.” Below the reproduction of the painting it states it is a composition by M Ryneckiego (a Polish conjugation of Rynecki). The newspaper is dated 1927. I do not know the whereabouts of this painting. Perhaps it was destroyed in the Second World War. If so, I am even more grateful for this grainy black and white photograph because it may be the only image of it that exists.
Chanuka