Manuil
Iosifovich Shekhtman

(1900, lipnicki, Volyn province – 1941, Moscow), graphic artist, painter, theater artist. The brother of the poetess M. bat-Hama. In childhood he lived with his grandfather in noryns'k, where he studied in cheder. In the family children instilled a love of literature in Hebrew. In 1913 he entered the Kiev art College, from which he graduated in 1920.

In the years after Shechtman approached the group of Jewish intellectuals associated with the right wing To Aley Tsiyon and radical factions in the Zionist youth movement (Tsegh a Yrieix Zion). For a collection of poems in Hebrew "GA ash" ("Storm", Kiev, 1923) one of the poets in this group — M. Novak — executed sketch cover, using a stylized Hebrew font. In 1919-21 he cooperated with the Kyiv city branch of the Tarbut organization, designed the performances, and the Purimshpil (see Purim) in her theatrical Studio "Omanut". In 1922-26 he studied at the Kiev art Institute, the workshop of the ideologist and the leader of the Ukrainian national art of M. Boychuk. In 1928 he joined the crew "baitugelov" participated in the creation of paintings, the Peasant sanatorium in Odesa (frescoes "On the panschinoy" and "harvest Festival"; not preserved). In 1926 Shechtman became a member of the Association of revolutionary art of Ukraine participated in numerous exhibitions, his work was repeatedly exhibited at all-Union and international exhibitions (Biennale, Venice, 1930; Exhibition of Soviet art in Zurich, 1931, Tokyo, 1932).

Until the early 1930s Shechtman actively collaborated with the Jewish cultural organizations. In 1925-27. he taught drawing and painting at the Kiev Jewish orphanage. Some of his disciples — I. Zisman (born in 1914), E. Simkin (born in 1915), B. Lukomnik — became professional artists. From 1927 to 1934 he was a member of the Secretariat of the art section of the all-Ukrainian society Geschult (Society of proletarian Jewish culture), which in 1929 was sent to the post of head of the art Department of the Odessa Museum of Jewish culture named after Mendel Mohair Sfarim. Shechtman has significantly enriched the art Museum collection, purchased and donated many works of many Jewish artists. In 1928 he became head of the production Department of the Kiev Jewish theatre of working youth ("Uhart") and has issued a number of performances ("Goldspinner" the works of Shalom Aleichem, 1929; "Step" on the play by N. Lurie, 1930; and others). Since the beginning of the 1930s began a devastating campaign against M. Boychuk and his school, which reckoned and Shechtman. The artist react badly to what was happening and a rough elimination of the Jewish cultural institutions; he was dismissed from all posts. In 1934, Shechtman was forced to move to Moscow and worked there in a team for the design of festive processions and parks. In 1938 he made a trip to the Jewish collective farms of the Crimea, where he completed a number of graphic sketches and wrote a series of paintings ("the Jewish kolkhoz in the Crimea", 1938, Kiev Museum of Ukrainian art; "Waiting for migrants", the collection of M. Shechtman, beer-Sheva).

In 1939 Shechtman issued the GOSET performance of "Herschel Ostropoler" the play by M. Gershenzon (Director — B. Zuskin). Pedagogical methods and artistic concept, the Foundation of which was the idea of creating a modern national art form that is based on creative interpretation of art of the early Italian Renaissance and Byzantine, and Ukrainian art of 16-18 centuries as their organic continue, had a profound influence on the works of Shechtman. The sensitivity of teachers to issues national in art, the interest in Oriental plastic was consonant with Jewish national self-awareness of the Shechtman. Already in the first independent work (diploma work — painting "Dina" /portrait of the artist's wife/, 1926, collection of M. Shechtman, beer-Sheva), he managed to create an original synthesis of the artistic techniques characteristic of the school "baitugelov" (working mostly in tempera, the statuesque quality and monumental form, the local outdoor color), and Jewish subjects. So, the image of a pogrom in the background of "Portrait of mother" (1926-27, the Kiev Museum of Ukrainian art) Shechtman is a quote from a very popular Ukrainian folk painting "Cossack Mamay". Central to the work of Shechtman has always remained a Jewish theme and, above all, the image of the tragic moments in recent national history — the pogroms. This is the topic of his important works of those years — "Pogrubienie" (1926) and "Displaced persons" (1929, both the Kiev Museum of Ukrainian art). The importance and personal nature of the themes emphasized by the artist himself, these works by combining a series of "My profile" and include a number of paintings depicting scenes from his childhood ("Knead the dough", 1927, collection of M. Shechtman, beer-Sheva).

In 1939, by order of the State Museum of the history of religion Shechtman wrote the painting "St. Bartholomew", which can be regarded as a return to the subject of pogroms. Tragic premonition of impending Disaster, probably found expression in his graphic cycle "the Exile", finished before the war (1939-41). According to the memoirs B. Lukomnik, Shechtman before many others understood the risks posed by Nazism to the Jewish people, and this influenced his decision to go volunteer in the militia.