A unique museum in Safed displays art works - paintings, sculptures and
more by sculptor Philip Ratner, portraying the Bible through his eyes.
by Daniella Ashkenazy
Israel is both the Land of the Bible and a museum-goer's Mecca. Yet,
strangely enough, it was the lack of a museum dedicated to the Book of
Books that motivated renowned American sculptor Philip Ratner to support
the establishment of the Israel Bible Museum. The site: Safed, an ancient
town in the Galilee famed as the seat of Jewish mysticism. The Israel
Bible Museum's setting is no less engaging: The structure that houses
Ratner's museum sits at the base of Safed's 2,000-year-old citadel in a
150-year-old dwelling donated by the municipality, that once was the
domicile of a Turkish pasha.
Ratner "supports" the museum in the broadest sense: The sculptor
established a public foundation among his art patrons that maintains the
three-story hewed-stone premises. The contents of the museum - a mixture
of oils and acrylics, lithographs and pencil drawings, sculpture and
sketches, reliefs and even comic strips - were all inspired by Bible
narrative, and donated by the artist. What makes the museum really
extraordinary is that all the items on display are "Ratners" - though only
a few of the exhibition pieces reflect the gentle, elongated bronze
figures that adorn Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, the works for
which Philip Ratner gained fame.
"The museum is the story of the Bible through the eyes of one Jew, very
selfish," says Ratner, eyes twinkling. Having his "own" museum is an
"immense ego trip", he admits, but Philip Ratner's purpose is otherwise.
"I'm passionately in love with the Bible. The museum was my dream." "I had
been to Israel some thirty or more times, before I decided to move here,"
says Ratner. For the past twelve years, since the museum opened its doors
on Independence Day in May 1985, he has divided his life between the
sophistication and hustle-bustle of Washington D.C. and the simplicity and
quiet of Safed - devoting his annual sojourn in the Galilee to filling the
museum with work he says he could only produce in Safed.
Ratner notes that, historically, the prohibition against "graven images"
has discouraged Jewish artists from portraying Biblical figures.
Establishment of the Israel Bible Museum was motivated by Ratner's intense
desire to express his own fascination with the Biblical narrative - the
faces of the Biblical heroes who captivated his imagination as a child,
and to share them with others, particularly children.
Not surprisingly, the Israel Bible Museum's most enthusiastic visitors are
kids, who are enthralled by the unbridled fantasy-filled kaleidoscope
quality of the exhibition - an artistic menagerie in an "adult museum".
The museum is arranged chronologically, beginning with seven panels
depicting the Story of the Creation. Human-size papiermache reliefs of
Adam and Eve are flanked by a black and white lithograph of the Garden of
Eden. A mixture of bold, bright stained-glass-like canvases of the Seven
Days of Creation hang suspended beside a whimsical mixed-media wall relief
- a Jacob's ladder of powder blue angel wings laced with white mask-like
faces floating up from floor to ceiling.
Open free to the public, the Israel Bible Museum offers self-guided tours
using booklets in Hebrew and English. "Some people spend twenty-five
minutes," Ratner reveals. "Others come and spend three and a half
hours."