Chasing Portraits with Elizabeth Rynecki
I am thrilled to welcome Elizabeth Rynecki to the show. Elizabeth is the great-granddaughter of Polish-Jewish artist, Moshe Rynecki (1881-1943), a prolific Warsaw artist who painted scenes of the Polish-Jewish community before he was murdered during the Holocaust. She grew up with her great-grandfather's paintings prominently displayed on the walls of her family home and understood from an early age that the art connected her to a legacy from "the old country": Poland. In 1999, Elizabeth designed the original Moshe Rynecki: Portrait of a Life in Art website. Elizabeth has a BA in Rhetoric from Bates College ('91) and an MA in Rhetoric and Communication from UC Davis ('94). Her Master's thesis focused on children of Holocaust survivors. Her book, Chasing Portraits: A Great Granddaughter's Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy, was published by Penguin Random House in September 2016. The documentary film, Chasing Portraits, had its world premiere in 2018. And today we are going to speak specifically about this incredible film. We discuss:
Moshe’s life and story
How Elizabeth’s family managed to save so many paintings and bring them to the United States
How Elizabeth discovered there were paintings still unaccounted for
Historical justice - and what that means
The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw
The importance of place - how we see to understand our past
Elizabeth’s emotional trip to Majdanek, where Moshe was murdered
The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem
The infection of history and art history
How teachers might incorporate Moshe’s art to better understand Jewish life in Warsaw before the war
Have a listen…
Be sure to check out Moshe’s art and more on this incredible story HERE, and of course, follow Elizabeth on Twitter and Instagram. AND…don’t forget to subscribe to The Rogue Historian Podcast and leave a rating on Apple Podcasts or your favorite app so you never ever ever ever miss a show. That would be dumb.
With compliments,
Keith