Sanctuary: Mark Podwal Terezin Suite
“All This Has Come Upon Us…” – Mark Podwal at Terezin Ghetto Museum
“Sanctuary, sanctuary sanctuary…” proclaims Quasimodo as he rescues Esmeralda, the gypsy girl unjustly accused of murder, and whisks her into the protection of the looming Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The 1939 film, Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara, is surprisingly shot through with veiled references to the plight of the Jews in Europe. The notion of the church as a place of refuge is a major theme, regardless of the historical irony. Sanctuary is simultaneously a place of holiness in which it is forbidden to enter; and a place of protection for all. Needless to say, sanctuary reverberates throughout the ages in our synagogues and communal history. Mark Podwal’s artwork at the Terezin Ghetto Museum in the Czech Republic reflects an engagement of the Sanctuary motif.
Sanctuary is a place of refuge, solace and protection that easily functions as a mental as well as physical state. Mark Podwal’s (markpodwal.com) latest series of artworks provides a kind of summation of a lifetime of mournful contemplation of Jewish history; a chilling chronicle of Jewish misfortune tempered by the balm of the Book of Psalms and his elegant artworks. The timing of the release of these works surely reflects the growing apprehension that the world only grows more dangerous for the Jewish state and especially urgent for the threatened European Jewish communities. History has seldom been so relevant.
The Holy City 1099 (2013) acrylic, gouache, colored pencil on paper by Mark Podwal Courtesy the artist
“Sanctuary, sanctuary sanctuary…” proclaims Quasimodo as he rescues Esmeralda, the gypsy girl unjustly accused of murder, and whisks her into the protection of the looming Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The 1939 film, Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara, is surprisingly shot through with veiled references to the plight of the Jews in Europe. The notion of the church as a place of refuge is a major theme, regardless of the historical irony. Sanctuary is simultaneously a place of holiness in which it is forbidden to enter; and a place of protection for all. Needless to say, sanctuary reverberates throughout the ages in our synagogues and communal history. Mark Podwal’s artwork at the Terezin Ghetto Museum in the Czech Republic reflects an engagement of the Sanctuary motif.
Sanctuary is a place of refuge, solace and protection that easily functions as a mental as well as physical state. Mark Podwal’s (markpodwal.com) latest series of artworks provides a kind of summation of a lifetime of mournful contemplation of Jewish history; a chilling chronicle of Jewish misfortune tempered by the balm of the Book of Psalms and his elegant artworks. The timing of the release of these works surely reflects the growing apprehension that the world only grows more dangerous for the Jewish state and especially urgent for the threatened European Jewish communities. History has seldom been so relevant.

After surveying the “evil speech” of Pharaoh, the abominations of Antiochus and pain of Exile; Podwal considers the “The Holy City 1099,” the First Crusade’s capture of Jerusalem that resulted in “the massacre of Muslims in their mosque and the burning of Jews in the main synagogue.” The chilling text of Psalm 3:3 “The great say of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him from God, Selah!’ ” reflects the heavenly onslaught of swords, battle axes and other instruments of war falling on the Holy City against a blood red sky. We didn’t have a chance.

“Fez 1465” was no exception to the persistent Jew hatred “when the Sultan appointed a Jew as Prime Minister, the town revolted. The Sultan and his Minister were assassinated and the Jews massacred.” The image of an Islamic sword piercing a hamsa well reflects the Psalm 37:14; “ The wicked drew a sword and bent their bows, to bring down the poor and the destitute, to slaughter those of upright ways.” The hamsa as a protective amulet, first known among the Arabs as the hand of Fatima, Muhammed’s daughter, is here ironically both the bearer of the Hebrew excoriation and its victim, perhaps alluding to the self-destructive nature of anti-Semitism.


Sanctuary is the means by which God’s holiness can dwell with and become accessible to us. It is the refuge God gives us in times good and bad. Our experiences of the trials of ever present anti-Semitism send us to the bastions of blind faith as well as the depths of despair. And yet we return, to the Holy One, in His sanctuary.
- Posted in: Contemporary Jewish Art