Jewish Life
Ladyzhensky’s treatment of Jewish life in Odessa is joyful and humorous, but underlying these scenes are reminders of the hardships, scarcities, and social transformations faced by Jews in early 20th-century Odessa. In Blessings to the Bridegroom and the Bride, a family is seated around a table, enjoying wine and a meal. Notably absent are the chairs which they ought to be sitting on. Ladyzhensky recalls that, because his family and neighbors did not have enough firewood, they would burn their chairs for warmth; thus, there was always a shortage of chairs. Ladyzhensky treats even a somber funerary scene with subtle humor: My Street in 1921 depicts Ladyzhensky’s family bringing his father to be buried, and even the family dog, Belka, is depicted here in black, as if she too is in mourning.
In these scenes, Ladyzhensky marries solemnity to humor, and celebration to hardship. What other opposing or contradictory moods and attitudes does Ladyzhensky fuse in his depictions of Odessan life?
Yefim Ladyzhensky
Minyan
Collection of Mark Kelner and Margarita Litvak-Kelner
Date unknown
A minyan, a quorum of ten (traditionally male) Jewish adults, is required to complete certain Jewish prayers and religious obligations. Here, the Jews of Odessa pray together in contrasting outfits, demonstrating Jews’ changing place in Soviet society: four men wrapped in tallitot, fringed prayer-shawls, are joined by a soldier and five men dressed as municipal workers.
Yefim Ladyzhensky
Blessings to the Bridegroom and the Bride
Collection of Mark Kelner and Margarita Litvak-Kelner
1974
“In my time every man had to get married. Wedding! And where there’s a wedding, there’s an engagement, with throwing a plate on the floor, slapping each other’s hands and shoulders, drinking wine, eating, weeping and laughing, and hoping. Hoping that, if with God’s help there’s no war or plague, damn them both, there will be a wedding soon.”
Yefim Ladyzhensky
My Street in 1921
Collection of Zachary Paul Levine and Allison Farber
Date Unknown
“Papa, an official in the fish industry, knew how to overcome any hardship when it came to his work, but he gave in when it came to hardships created by people, not fish. And so when the ground was cut from under his feet, he lost heart and fell ill, not ever trying to find it again, conserving his strength for himself, giving up on life altogether.”
Yefim Ladyzhensky
To the second Jewish Cemetery
(Mr. Mirvis’ Funeral)
1974
Collection of the artist’s family
The prosperous Mirvis family, also depicted in Madam Mirvis Bought a Piano, is shown here in a funeral procession, passing a synagogue on the left-hand side of the painting