Sichas Chulin, Eine fun di Geshichten, a tale by Moishe Broderzon, illustrated by Eliezer (El) Lissitzky. Moscow: Nashe slovo, 1917 (printing details from colophon on final page). Yiddish.
Sichas Chulin ("Small Talk" or "The Legend of Prague") is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's finest examples of illustrated Jewish books. The composition was written as a Modernist adaptation of the folk tale "Maaseh Yerushalmi" ("A Jerusalem Tale"), a story of the marriage of the Jew R. Yonah to the daughter of Ashmedai (Asmodeus), King of the Demons, with the setting of the story moved to the Jewish Ghetto of Prague.
The design of this publication – Lissitzky's first significant work in book design – was inspired by illustrated Jewish scrolls, while at the same time integrating modernist elements. The text was written entirely by a Jewish scribe ("sofer stam"), in square Hebrew letters, and was illustrated throughout in a format resembling that of Esther scrolls, with splendid illustrations and decorations – figures, animals and architectonic structures. The title page illustration shows three figures representing the creators of this scroll, namely Lissitzky, Broderzon, and the scribe, and a fourth, smaller figure, representing the main character of the story – a Jew being lifted upward in the talons of a large bird.
The first edition of Sichas Chulin was printed in Moscow, 1917, in a limited edition, of which a small number of copies were bound in form of scrolls (see Kedem Auction 92, item 183).

[18] pages. 30.5X24 cm. Good condition. Stains. Marginal tears to title page and final page, repaired with paper. Inner margins reinforced with paper. Stamps. Faded inscription on title page. New binding and endpapers.

El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (1890–1941), Russian Jewish artist, designer, photographer, educator, typographer, and architect, among the most prominent and influential leaders of the Russian avant–garde movement. An architect by training, Lissitzky, along with his mentor and friend Kazimir Malevich, greatly contributed to the formation and development of the Suprematist movement, which advanced a geometric form of abstract art. He was responsible for the design of numerous books and periodicals, as well as exhibitions and propaganda material on behalf of Russia's Communist regime, and he exerted considerable influence on Europe's Bauhaus and Constructivist movements.
Early in his career, Lissitzky expressed a keen interest in Jewish culture, and Jewish motifs were integrated into many of his works. In this vein, in 1915–16 he took part in Sh. An–ski's ethnographic expedition into the Pale of Jewish Settlement. With the outbreak of the October (Bolshevik) Revolution, Lissitzky came to be wholeheartedly identified with the Communist cause. In the interest of advancing Jewish culture in Russia in the aftermath of the Revolution, he devoted much of his creative energy, among other things, to designing and illustrating Yiddish children's books, and a number of his published children's books were regarded as pioneering masterpieces of graphic design and typography. Nevertheless, several years later he largely abandoned Jewish subject matter and embarked instead on the development of a more abstract and universal artistic language. The resulting style found its keenest expression in a series of abstract, geometric paintings, drawings and prints he created in the years 1919–27, to which he gave the name "Proun."

Moishe Broderzon (1890–1956), poet, playwright, and founder of a number of prominent artists' groups in Eastern Europe, including the "Yung–Yiddish" avant–garde group, the Ararat Theater of Łódź, and the world's first Yiddish marionette theater, "Had Gadya." In 1916, Broderzon was one of the founders of the "Circle for Jewish National Aesthetic" artists' group in Moscow known as "Shomir". Broderzon's oeuvre includes a host of poems and plays, many of which were dedicated to Jewish topics. Among other works, Broderzon created the libretto for "Dovid un Bas Sheva, " the first Yiddish opera to appear onstage in Poland, as well as the acclaimed epic poem "Yud, " which deals with the impending calamity about to befall European Jewry. Many of Broderzon's books were products of a collaboration with other Jewish artists, including designers, painters, and photographers. These collaborations gave rise to several books illustrated and designed in a host of different styles.
Alongside "Had Gadya" (see following item), "Sichas Chulin" is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's finest examples of illustrated Yiddish books.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv.