Naftali Bezem is an Israeli painter, muralist, and sculptor.

Biography

Bezem who was born in Essen, Germany, in 1924. His early adolescence was spent under Nazi oppression, in constant fear for the safety of his parents, who perished in Auschwitz concentration camp

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

. Naftali emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1939, at the age of fourteen with a Youth Aliyah

Youth Aliyah

Szold was initially skeptical about the merits of Freier's proposal, as she believed that Germany offered better educational opportunities for Jewish children than Palestine. However, Hitler's rise to power convinced her otherwise. The Nuremberg Laws were enacted in 1935 and on 31 March 1936 German...

 group.

From 1943 to 1946, he studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design

Bezalel Academy of Art and Design

Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is Israel's national school of art, founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri , who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle ....

 in Jerusalem with Israeli painter Mordecai Ardon

Mordecai Ardon

Mordecai Ardon , considered one of Israel's greatest painters.-Biography:Ardon was born in 1896 in Tuchów, Galicia , and immigrated to the then Mandate Palestine in 1933....

. He then spent three years studying in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

His most famous public works include a wall relief at Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....

 in Jerusalem and the ceiling mural in the main reception room at the President's Residence, Jerusalem.

Further reading

• Debel Gallery
  Debel Gallery
  The Debel Gallery operated in Jerusalem in the 1970's and 1980's when the city was a pilgrimage center for curators, journalists and art enthusiasts and even then it was exceptional in the Jerusalem landscape. Etienne and Ruth Debel opened the Gallery in the basement of their home in Ein...
  
   Ein Kerem
  Ein Kerem
  Ein Kerem , lit. “Spring of the Vineyard”, and - ‘Ein Kārem), is an ancient village of the Jerusalem District and now a neighbourhood in southwest of Jerusalem. According to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born in Ein Kerem, leading to the establishment of many churches and monasteries....
  
  , Naftali Bezem, Jerusalem, Debel Gallery ein Kerem, 1980.
• Gross, Ted W., Ben-Dov and I. Mintzer, The Passover Haggadah Illustrated by Naftali Bezem, Tel Aviv, 1982.
• Kohn, Matthias, Naftali Bezem, Bern, Benteli Verlag, 1998.
• Open Museum
  Open Museum
  Open Museum is a participatory exhibit space for fine artists, art museums, and art enthusiasts. Also a not-for-profit digital outreach tool for artists and museums, its purpose is to...
  
  , Naftali Bezem - Rope Ladder 1996-1999, Open Museum, 2000.