Shtetlekh…. Half-towns-half-villages…. Different nooks of Eastern Europe…. The homeland for thousands of Jews. It was from the shtetlekh that they set out after pogroms and revolutions to settle down in different parts of the world. It was from the shtetlekh that they were carried to their last place on earth, the crematorium furnaces…. The past that is gone forever, that disappeared and got dissolved in the non-being together with many other boys and girls, together with their mother tongue, Yiddish.... There is no longer Yiddish, no longer Jewish towns. But there are other boys and girls, and now they are passing on to their children the same traditions and festivals. And Yiddish is not dead; it has simply returned to its roots, to its sacred source, Hebrew, to the words pronounced every year for the last two thousand years: the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem…" have acquired a totally new meaning….

Boris Dubrov. «Children Klezmers»

Oil on canvas. 150х120. 2017. Private collection, Israel

1879…. Eastern Europe, Poland, three and a half million Jews, hundreds of synagogues, since the 14th century, they were welcomed with Bruhim Habaim, welcome here….

Boris Dubrov. «Sevivon»

Oil, canvas. 30x40 cm. 2016.
Private collection, USA

The turn of the 20th century, December, snow…. There is Hanukkah celebration in a Jewish stetl. A hanukkiah is burning for eight days, and the Yiddishe mama is baking latkes, potato pancakes. Near an iron oven, the children are turning a wooden dreydl.

Boris Dubrov. «The Hanukkah Holiday»

Oil on canvas. 90x120 cm. 2006. Private collection, USA

The 2nd century before our time, the epoch of the Second Temple…. Ancient Judea is part of the Seleucid Empire. This time was a hard trial for the Jewish people: the policy of total assimilation, the Greek culture and religion, a ban for studying the Torah and for obeying the mitzvah (commandments). The veneration of images… In the Temple, at the place of the Pure Gold Menorah, there is a sculpture of Zeus. This is time of Hellenism for many Jews: many but not all….

Boris Dubrov. «Shofar»

Oil on canvas. Private collection, USA

The tenth day of the month of Tishrei, completion of the Ten Days of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the most important religious holiday in Judaism. This is the Day of Fasting, the Day of Atonement, the Day of Absolution, the Day of Record in the Book of Life. On this day, God passes his final judgement to each man…. The main task for each man is rectification and purification.

Boris Dubrov. «Seigermachers»

oil on canvas, 60х120. 2014, a private collection, USA

The evening and the morning prayers, Sabbath, Passover, Yom Kippur…. Someone’s birth, someone’s death. The inevitable course of time, the images of the Eternal and of the Fleeting….

Boris Dubrov. «Disputes on the Torah»

oil on canvas, 90х120, 2016, a private collection, Israel

Berdichev, Zhitomir, Lviv, Chernovtsy…. The synagogue is a home of prayer and a venue of the community gathering. Men are discussing the Torah, the law of Life, the law of Creed, the traditional Regulations…. Jerusalem, Tsfat, Hevron… The synagogue is a home of prayer. the law of Life, the law of Creed, the traditional Regulations…. Two thousand years….

Boris Dubrov. «A new fiddle»

oil on canvas, 60х120. 2016, a private collection, USA

The people of the Book, the people of the Fiddle…. A fiddle is the power and the passion of the Jewish music, a fiddle is one of the few opportunities to make a career. The duty of any Yiddishe mama is to let her child play the violin. Monyas, Yashas, Davids, Nathans are the hope of their families. The spirit of competition and the daily life….

Boris Dubrov. «Bdikat Hametz»

Oil, canvas. 120x90 cm. 2008.
Private collection, USA

The house is prepared for the Passover, there is no longer any bread, pies or cakes in it... On the eve before the holiday, the children are playing a game, which is a ceremony called “Bdikat Hametz".

Boris Dubrov. «At a tailor’s»

Oil, canvas. 90x120. 2006.
Private collection, USA

Jacket makers, trousers makers, vest makers, hat makers, gloves makers…. They made clothes, put patches, mended and pressed clothes… they never mixed wool and silk threads…

Boris Dubrov. «Klezmers»

Oil, canvas. 120х90. 2006.
Private collection, USA

A fiddle and a bass, an accordion and a clarinet, a cello and a trumpet…. Where a klezmer is, there is the motherland. Traditional Jewish music, a traveling band. Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, fairs, Simchat-Torah and Purim…. In grief and in joy, from birth to death, from father to son….

Boris Dubrov. «Shoemaker Shuster»

Oil on canvas. 90х120. 2004. Private collection, USA

Bathen, Zeygermaher, Shneyder, Glazer, Kaufman, Shteynshlayfer, Shuster –a wedding entertainer, a clockmaker, a tailor, a glassmaker, a trader, a stone polisher, a shoe maker….

Boris Dubrov. «Tfilin»

Oil on canvas, 60х120. 2005, a private collection, Israel

Thirteen years and one day, coming of age, a Bar Mitzvah, the synagogue... this is the first time that the commandment of reading the Torah and of placing tfilin is performed. Tfila is a prayer, and tfilin are two prayers….

Boris Dubrov. «Studying the Torah»

Oil on canvas

Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia…. Eastern Europe. Hebrew and Yiddish, two languages and one people, Hebrew is the sacred language of the Torah, Yiddish is the secular language of the galut, the language of the Jewish diaspora uprooted from its homeland. “God speaks Yiddish on weekdays and Hebrew on Sabbath”….

Boris Dubrov. Checking for a Mesusah

oil, canvas, 80х60.2017, a private collection, USA

The Pale of Settlement, its own world, its own laws, its own neighbors – Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Latvians, Moldavians….

Boris Dubrov. SoferStam

(a Scribe of Holy Texts)

Sefermeansabook, soferisascribe, andsoferstamis a scribe of Holy Books and prayers. Literary, historical, legal, religious texts…. Writing and copying….

"I will gather you from the peoples, and I will bring you back from the lands where you are scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel".

There are the Middle East, Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948, 16:00, the museum building. David Ben-Gurion pronounces solemnly the Declaration of Independence of Israel: "... we proclaim the creation of the Jewish State in Eretz Yisrael - the State of Israel ...". In two thousand years, Bruhim Abaim sounds, welcome - welcome home! ....

And the next day, military operations began against an independent Jewish state, followed by a series of wars for independence. The earth is covered with wounds cemetery, where are buried the soldiers who died for the independence. They are someone's sons, men and fathers. But the anthem Atikva - Hope, de facto become the national anthem of Israel, continues to sound. But there is a country, and a desert turned into a blossoming garden, and an «iron dome», and a flash drive and cherry tomatoes ....

Today's history and tradition intertwined closely. There are all the same holidays in the Jewish calendar, and the obligatory lesson of the Torah in the school, and daily thanks to God for the given day, and the alley of the Righteous Among the World in Jerusalem, and Holocaust Remembrance Day, the memory of six million innocent dead souls ....

Modernity and tradition intertwined closely in the souls of Ashkenazi, Sephardim, Lahlukh, Arab, Persian, Bukhara, Georgian, Mountain, Indian Jews, Romish, Falash and many other Jews from one in more then hundred countries. These are the descendants of the forefather Jacob - the sons of Israel for two thousand years scattered throughout the world .... They retained their faith, their language and their culture two thousand years... They are a united nation in the land of Israel, a single language, a single God and a single faith in their country, in the future of their own and their children. Bruchim Abaim - welcome and shalom - PEACE!