In an emotionally charged ceremony on a Moscow hillside, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and a host of dignitaries broke ground on October 8, 1996 for a new synagogue, the first Jewish house of worship constructed in Russia since 1918. This historic event marked the Russian government's acknowledgment of the Jewish religion and commemoration of 200,000 Jewish soldiers killed in the war against Nazi Germany while serving in the Russian army. The site, Poklonnaya Gora, is the state complex honoring Russia's military victories dating back to Napoleon.
Moscow's Mayor Yuri Lushkov, U. S. and Israeli Ambassadors, World Jewish Congress General Secretary Israel Singer, Russian Chief Rabbi Ariel Shaovich, and Vladimir Gusinsky, President of the Russian Jewish Congress, which is funding the construction, were among those on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony. Also present were the synagogue's Israeli designers, Moshe Zahry, the country's preeminent architect, and Frank Meisler, internationally acclaimed sculptor. Meisler created the bimah, Torah ark, the Eternal Light, a sculpture based on the Five Books of Moses, metal Hebrew lettering of Torah passages affixed to the synagogue's internal walls of Jerusalem stone imported from Israel, a chanukiah for the synagogue's interior, and an 18-foot bronze menorah resting on a four-and-a-half-foot-high granite pedestal outside the building.
Meisler was an appropriate choice for the project not only because of his talent and reputation but also because of his personal tragedy connected to the horrors of World War II.
 Frank Meisler's Lion of Judah Chanukiah incorporates filigree elements, added to his style following research for his tribute to the Jewish navigators, seamen, and cartographers whose pioneering work was critical to the success of Columbus's voyage in 1492. |
"Working at crafts was unusual for a Jewish person in those days," Meisler said, judging his great-great-grandfather a better craftsman than artist. Meisler saw these works as the only evidence of his having inherited talent but admits that, "As a child, I was not considered very creative."
Danzig was a free city in Meisler's early years, but before long the winds of war began to stir. An early warning signal was the expulsion of Jewish children from the German-speaking schools. After intensive tutoring to learn the language, Frank entered the Polish School, where he had his next childhood experience with art. "The other children warned me that the art teacher was crazy, that he loved very bright colors and weird figures—a face that is green instead of pink, with three noses and four eyes, for example," he recalled. Totally tongue-in-cheek, to get good grades, the children unwittingly created a sort of avant-garde art. In retrospect, Meisler seemed greatly amused that "the teacher compiled a book of these works to prove his theory that children left on their own will produce great art."
Meisler's fun in outwitting the art teacher soon came to an end. At age eight, he was one of fifteen Jewish children from Danzig sent to England on a kindertransport (children's train)—shades of his maternal ancestors' flight from persecution in Spain centuries before. He learned afterwards that an uncle he never knew had financed the youngsters' escape by purchasing the Danzig Jewish community's treasures. Decades later it became the exhibit "Danzig 1939: Treasures of a Destroyed Community."
Following graduation, Meisler accepted an invitation to recent graduates from the city of Venice, Italy to provide fresh ideas for renovations to that city's old buildings. He worked under leading architects, notably the influential Le Corbusier, founder of the "international style," and met the city's illustrious residents including legendary art collector Peggy Guggenheim. At the conclusion of the project, Meisler saw an advertisement for a "working holiday" in Israel. "I'd always wanted to visit," he said, "and the idea of working seemed right." During that trip in 1958, he met Batya (Phyllis) Hochberg, an American Israeli, who later became his wife and the mother of his two daughters, Mical and Marit.
After a stint as an architect in London, he returned to Israel, learned another new language, and began designing furniture. For amusement he used wood scraps to carve figures inspired in daily life. Friends admired them and asked Meisler to sculpt figures for them, and thus began his career in art. He was one of a group of artists and architects who restored part of the ancient, walled city of Jaffa (Joppa in the Haftarah Jonah), turning the previous decades' ruins into a charming maze of artists' and artisans' galleries and residences.
From wood, Meisler moved to metal, researched ancient sandcasting methods, and developed his unique style and the process that makes it possible to create moving parts. His works invite viewers to interact—to move the parts, to open doors and look inside, to find Meisler's surprises. "Things are not always what they seem. There's always another side, a story behind a story, something hidden behind a door," he contends. From a few curious door-openers in his gallery there developed over the years a world-wide cadre of collectors.
As his work caught on, his desire to create beautiful Judaica emerged as a passion. "Early in my studies," he said, "I became aware of the relatively low quality of Judaica in the past centuries. It was, almost literally, ‘poor man's art' because the Gentile world, and the Catholic Church in particular, were watchful of any aspect of Judaism that might be appealing." He noted that Jewish places of worship were usually shabby buildings that would not compete with the magnificent churches. He's changed all that with his beautifully conceived and executed works of Judaica, large and small, based on the Land of Israel, the Torah, and mitzvot (commandments).
Architectural elements are a hallmark of many Meisler works. The Jerusalem cityscape, its domes and arches, roofs and turrets, doors and windows, dominates much of his Judaica, from small pieces such as mezuzah covers, candlesticks, Chanukah menorot, kiddush cups, ketubah cases, and havdalah sets, to monumental works in synagogues and public places.
He was invited to create the Torah ark for the restored synagogue in Mannheim, Germany. Two of his Jerusalem spheres sit in prestigious locations: one mounted on a fountain in the lobby of Jerusalem's King Solomon Hotel; the other on the Jewish Campus in Boca Raton, Florida. In the latter, the gates open to reveal the city within. Using the architectural technique of scale, he has reduced the sphere to various table sizes—the State of Israel gave one to Margaret Thatcher when she was British Prime Minister. In yet a smaller scale, the sphere becomes a wearable pendant, retaining an amazing amount of the detail found in the larger versions.
In the U.K., where he is widely admired, Meisler created a sculpture at Stratford-on-Avon from the State of Israel, one of seven countries invited to participate in illuminating the theater's promenade. Another of his works is in England's Kent International Airport.
To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Columbus expedition, he created a tribute to the Jewish navigators, seamen, cartographers, and scientists whose pioneering work was critical to the success of Columbus' voyage. As he captures the architecture of Jerusalem in many of his Judaic works, on the Columbus sculpture, he integrated filigree and medieval architectural elements associated with the 15th century. In December of 1992, Spain's King Juan Carlos unveiled the ten-foot-high monument titled "Columbus and the Jewish Contribution to the Voyage of Discovery" in the basic form of a ship's mast. The original is on exhibit in Gerona; another is in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. Incidentally, this sculpture inspired his newest chanukiah, in the shape of an anchor.
Favored state gifts from the Israeli Government, Meisler's works have been presented to King Juan Carlos of Spain, U. S. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, and Secretaries of State Kissinger, Haig, Schultz, and Chainey.
Those who haven't made the Israel Government's list can find Meisler's works in fine gift shops and galleries world wide, including Frank Meisler's Galleries in Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and London, in many H. Stern Jewelry shops, and in the Meisner Gallery, Farmingdale, New York.
Judith Broder Sellner, a freelance writer living in New York, has profiled some of today's most prominent Jewish artists. Her articles about art and Judaica appear regularly in publications throughout North America.