Could Moses Mendelssohn 1729–86, the Enlightenment Jewish
philosopher and originator of the Bi’ur a translation of the Bible
into German in Hebrew characters, have seen what a Galician-born
Jewish artist used for the frontispiece of an illustrated Bible at
the beginning of the twentieth century, he would certainly have
been shocked and uncomfortable. But whether Ephraim Moses Lilien
1874–1925 was out to stun his audience or was just deeply
engrossed in the art nouveau style is at present of little
significance. However, by placing the renowned thinker alongside
the less-known, erstwhile Zionist artist, we get a fuller view of
the cultural transformation of West and Central European Jewry
during a century and a half. Jewish sensibilities and concerns were
radically transposed as the engagement with a panoply of cultural
orientations superseded earlier pinnacles of Jewish integration,
such as Muslim Spain. Even the Bible, the Old Testament, the
touchstone of Judaism, would be refracted and refashioned in a
multitude of expressions, showing the shifting boundaries of Jewish
life and the Jews’ profound acceptance of the surrounding
environment. The tightrope Mendelssohn walked between traditional
Judaism and European culture was long forgotten or discarded when
Lilien brazenly incorporated into the frontispiece of his Bible
1908,1 1923 two androgynous figures holding an extended Torah
scroll that covers their genitalia. In Lilien’s day, the tightrope
stretched between European culture and a Jewish nationalist
agenda.
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