Di Malke Shvo [The Queen of Sheba], a dramatic poem by Moishe Broderzon. Łódź, Jund Yiddish, 1921. Yiddish.
Dramatic poem in Yiddish by Moishe Broderzon (1890-1956) – poet and playwright, a prominent artist in the Jewish avant-garde movement. Modernist illustration by Broderzon on the title page (signed in plate M. B.).
31, [3] pages. Approx. 15.5 cm. Good condition. Minor stains and creases. Several marginal tears to a few leaves (not affecting text). Original paper wrappers, slightly damaged.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, B.1351.

Shtrom, Choydesh Heftn [Stream, monthly booklets], issues no. 2 and 3. Moscow: Shtrom, 1922. Yiddish. Cover design by Marc Chagall.
Shtrom, literary–artistic journal, containing poetry and prose by Peretz Markish, Der Nister (Pinchas Kahanowitz), David Hofstein, Naum Auslander (Nokhem Oyslender) and others.
The journal was founded in Moskow by Yehezkel Dobrushin, Naum Auslander and Aron Kushnirov, all prominent poets in the Jewish art circles of Kiev. A total of six issues (in five booklets) were published between 1922 and 1924. At first, the journal aimed at publishing Yiddish modernist writers from all over the world, not only from Russia. Although it was not an official organ of a Soviet organization, Shtrom is considered as the first Soviet Yiddish literary periodical.

Issue no. 2: 80 pages, [1] leaf. Issue no. 3: 83, [1] page. Approx. 25.5 cm. Bristle leaves. Good condition. Stains. Tears, including small open tears – some repaired with paper, not affecting text. Rebound, with the original cover.

Marc Chagall (1887–1985), a Russian–French artist, is considered by many the greatest Jewish modern painter. Chagall was born to a Hassidic family in Liozna (then in Belarus), the eldest of nine siblings. When his mother asked his first art teacher, the painter Yehuda Pen, whether her son could earn a living from painting, Pen looked at Chagall's sketches and told her: "Yes, he has some ability". At the age of twenty, he was accepted to study art in St. Petersburg (during this period, he painted for the first time the figure of the Fiddler on the Roof, after which the famous musical is named) and in 1914 married the writer Bella Rosenfeld, who became known as one of his greatest sources of inspiration.
After the October Revolution, Chagall was appointed commissar of arts for the Vitebsk district, where he established an art museum and school. Among the teachers of the school were the artist El Lissitzky and the painter Yehuda Pen – Chagall's first teacher. In 1919, another painter was invited to teach at the school, who was one of the most revolutionary and influencing artists in those years – Kazimir Malevich. Malevich held an artistic view which was more radical than Chagall's and wanted to instill his students with the artistic style he himself had developed – Suprematism. His charismatic figure and new outlook attracted many supporters and in 1920, a collective was established in the school (UNOVIS), which adopted the principles of his doctrine. Gradually, Malevich and his supporters gained power and influence, taking Chagall's place in the managing of the school and finally, changing the curriculum. Subsequently, Chagall decided to leave Russia.
In 1920, Chagall moved to Western Europe and after a short stay in Berlin settled in Paris. During this period, he created the important series "My Life", which documented the views of the Jewish town, and the series of bible illustrations. In 1941, approx. two years after the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, Chagall succeeded in escaping to the USA with the assistance of the American journalist Varian Fry. For several years he lived in New York, returning to France after the war, where he remained until his death.
Chagall's works of art, which embrace a wide variety of fields and styles (prints, theater sets and costumes, sculpture and ceramics, tapestry, mosaics, stained glass, and more), are exhibited in leading museums and galleries, in the opera houses of New York and Paris, in the Mainz Cathedral, in the Knesset (in a space named "The Chagall Lounge") and elsewhere. The painter Pablo Picasso said of his work: "When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is".

Exhibition:
• Sanctity – Art – Aesthetics, Exhibition catalog, Mané-Katz Museum, 2011, p. 59.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, B.2127A, B.2127B.

"Oxen", poems by Isaac (Itzik) Kipnis. Cover designed by Mark Epshtein. Kiev: Vidervuks, 1923. Yiddish.
Modernistic poems by the Soviet Yiddish poet Itzik Kipnis, written during the years 1921–1922; two parts: "Regen–Stoyib" [literally: "Rain Dust"] and "Frayid" [Joy].

23, [1] pp. 17 cm. Good condition. Minor stains. Booklet rebound, with original paper wrappers pasted on the new cover. Tear to a new endpaper.

Isaac (Itzik) Kipnis (1896–1974), born in Ukraine, was a children's author, Yiddish poet and translator. In the 1930s he was persecuted by the government and his work was banned due to his perceived reactionist (meaning Zionist) views. In 1948 he was deported to the Gulag along other Jewish artists. Although he was set free after Stalin's death, he was only allowed back in Kiev in the 1960s.

Mark Epshtein (1897–1949), born in Bobruisk, was a graphic designer, painter, sculptor and set designer. He was educated in a traditional cheder, and later studied at the Kiev Art Institute and (in 1918) under artist Alexandra Ekster. That same year he exhibited his work in an exhibition dedicated to Jewish artists and took part in founding the art department within the Kultur Lige. His style was largely influenced by modernist Jewish authors and poets active in the same artistic circles as himself in Kiev, such as Der Nister (Pinchas Kahanovich), David Bergelson and Yekhezkl Dobrushin. Epshtein remained active in Kiev even after the Ukraine SSR was established and the Kultur Lige was taken over by the communist authorities, although most of his fellow artists opted to leave town. Between 1923 and 1931 Epshtein headed the Kiev Jewish School of Industrial Art (the former Kultur Lige art department, nationalized by the communist government), and designed stage sets and costumes for theaters in Kiev and Kharkiv.
In 1932, after the school as well as other remaining Kultur Lige institutions were shut down, he had to leave Kiev for Moscow. No work of his was exhibited during his later years.

See:

• Exhibition Catalogue "Futur antérieur". Paris: Skira Flammarion, 2009. Pp. 116, no. 89.
• Sanctity – Art – Aesthetics, Exhibition catalog, Mané-Katz Museum, 2011.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, B.1421.

Kinstlerischer Aleph-Bet [Artistic Alphabet], 33 prints by Ben-Zion Zuckermann. [Vilnius? 1919?]. Yiddish.
Handmade copy of the album "Kinstlerischer Aleph-Bet"; ornamented miniatures of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, cut and pasted to paper plates, signed: " Ben-Zion Zuckerman, Erster original Radierung" [first original etching; Yiddish].
The letters, each on its own page, are set on vegetal or abstract backgrounds, sometimes incorporating a corresponding object or scene. Some of the letters are decorated with Jewish motifs – a Menorah, Jewish figures, a praying man, and more. Some of the miniatures are signed in the plate and some are dated 1919.

Ben-Zion Zuckerman (1890-1944), born in the vicinity of Vilnius, studied at the Vilnius Drawing School, later leaving for Paris where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1923-1927, he lived and worked in Palestine, painting its views even after returning to Europe. He died in Samarkand in the midst of World War II.

[33] prints (pasted on plates, bound together). Size and condition vary. Good-fair condition. Stains and minor creases (mostly to page corners). Few marginal tears to first print (without damage to plate). Album: approx. 33.5X33.5 cm (leaf sizes vary). Binding blemished and slightly worn.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, ALE. 24.

Shtilim, illustrated journal for youth and children. Editor: M. Ben–Eliezer, publisher: M. Zlatopolsky. Moscow: "Omanut Hadfus" (Russian), July–December 1917. Bound volume of first year issues.
Issues no. 1–12 of "Shtilim", an illustrated journal for children edited by the journalist Moshe Ben–Eliezer (9 booklets; some are double issues).
"Shtilim" was the first publication by "Omanut" which was founded in Moscow at the time (when Shoshana Persitz acquired the printing house "Omanut Hadfus"), initiated by the editor, Moshe Zlatopolsky, son of the philanthropist Hillel Zlatopolsky.
The journal was published in Moscow irregularly in the course of less than a year, featuring works by leading writers and poets, such as: H. N. Bialik, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Ya'akov Fichman, Eliezer Steinman, and others, alongside tales and translations from around the world, as well as news from Palestine and other parts of the world.
Fine illustrations accompany the journal’s issues. Illustrations by Eliezer Lissitzky for the story "Shlomo HaMelech" by H. N. Bialik appear in issue no. 6–7. These are the only known illustrations by Lissitzky for a text originally written in Hebrew. (See: Tradition and Revolution, The Jewish Renaissance in Russian Avant–Garde Art 1912–1928, item no. 77; p. 107).

Leaves lacking in three of the bound issues.
Issues 1–12 (9 booklets, three of which double–issues). Pagination varies. 21.5 cm. Fine–poor condition. Leaves lacking in three of the issues (4 pages in first issue, 2 pages in fourth issue, and 24 pages in last issue). Stains and creases. Worming, tears and open tears to some leaves (some significant). Few tears restored (unprofessionally).
Issue 6–7, with Lissitky's illustrations, in fair condition. Tears and open tears to margins, and losses to page corners (slightly affecting text, not affecting Lissitzky's illustrations). Some leaves restored (unprofessionally). Issues bound together, without original wrappers.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, B.81.