Irvin Ungar (born 1948) is an American former pulpit rabbi and antiquarian bookseller, considered the foremost expert
Early life and education
Ungar was born in 1948 in Trenton, New Jersey and graduated from Trenton Central High School in 1966. After receiving his B.A. from Washington & Jefferson College in 1970, Ungar then attended rabbinical school, obtaining both his
Semikhah from the Academy for Jewish Religion and an M.A. in Education from New York University in 1974. While serving as the rabbi at Temple Sinai in Forest Hills, New York (1974 – 1980), Ungar earned his Pastoral Counseling Degree from the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health and his Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) from New York Theological Seminary. Ungar moved to Burlingame, California in 1980 to serve as a rabbi for Peninsula Temple Sholom. During his seven years as a rabbi in Burlingame, Ungar also wrote opinion pieces on social and religious issues for the
San Mateo County Times.
Historicana
In 1987, Ungar founded Historicana (known as Holy Land Treasures from 1987 to 1991), becoming an antiquarian book dealer specializing in historic Judaica.
In 1991, Historicana became a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. Notable items that Ungar owned and sold over the years include
Anne Frank’s “Forget Me Not”
autograph inscription;
the original handwritten draft in Hebrew of
Martin Buber’s 1939 letter to
Mahatma Gandhi regarding a two-state solution in Palestine;
a rare
Theodor Herzl autograph letter, dated November 1900, stating a plan to “bring the cause of
Zionism before the English Parliament”;
and a letter signed by both King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, dated 1492, on the confiscation of Jewish property and the expulsion of Jews from Spain.
In addition, Historicana produced a series of American Judaica catalogues, as well as one-off catalogues for specialty collections. These included a Zion anniversary catalogue,
The Birth of a Nation,
commemorating the 50th anniversary of the
Israel; and the
Collector’s Haggadah Catalogue: 1695 – Present,
which gave prospective buyers information and prices on almost 1500 Haggadot that Ungar owned at one time.
Ungar's increasing interest in Arthur Szyk changed the direction and scope of Historicana in key ways. In 1999, Historicana became a small publishing imprint to reprint the exhibition catalogue from “Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk,”
Arthur Szyk
Ungar first encountered Arthur Szyk's art in 1975, when he purchased a copy of
Szyk Haggadah illustrated by Szyk from Bloch Publishing Company in New York.
At the time, Szyk was relatively unknown,
having fallen into obscurity
after his death at age 57 in 1951.
Ungar's interest in Arthur Szyk began in the late 1980s, following his purchase of Szyk's Holiday Series prints
The Arthur Szyk Society
George Gooche founded The Arthur Szyk Society in 1991, establishing the nonprofit in Orange County, California, “to disseminate the artist's work and ideals.”
In 1997, Ungar assumed responsibility for the Society and moved its headquarters to Burlingame, establishing a new Board of Trustees. In his new role as President of the Society, and later as Society Curator, Ungar increased Szyk’s visibility over a 20-year period through lectures, newsletters, art history papers, and exhibitions, including the traveling exhibition “Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk.”
Lectures and addresses
Ungar's first
public lecture on Arthur Szyk took place at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1994, on the hundredth anniversary of the artist’s birth.
On three separate occasions,
Ungar has been invited to speak on Szyk at the Library of Congress. Ungar also delivered the
keynote at the opening of “Arthur Szyk — Drawing Against National Socialism and Terror”
at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in
Berlin, and for the opening of the “Justice Illuminated” traveling exhibition
at the Jewish Historical Institute in
Warsaw,
Poland, as part of the Arthur Szyk Society’s Renaissance Tour. Additionally, Ungar has been invited to speak at numerous universities and institutions in the
United States and abroad.
Publications and media
Ungar authored his first essay on Szyk in 1999 in
Biblio magazine, with co-author and Szyk biographer Joseph P. Ansell.
His other notable essays include an examination of
Nostra aetate and
De profundis for
Moment magazine;
Szyk as an “artist for freedom” for
Washington’s Rebuke to Bigotry;
Szyk’s legacy as a “fighter for justice” for
Dziedzictwo Polsko-Zydowskiego Artysty (The Legacy of the Polish-Jewish Artist);
a history of The Szyk Haggadah for
Freedom Illuminated;
Szyk’s
Holocaust art for
The Holocaust and Nostra Aetate:
Toward a Greater Understanding;
and a look at Szyk’s role as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “soldier in art” for the Norman Rockwell Museum’s traveling exhibition, “Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms.”
Ungar was interviewed by Rabbi Mark S. Golub in a one-hour program for the Jewish Broadcasting Service,
and was profiled by Steven Heller for the American Institute of Graphic Arts
and
The Atlantic.
Through the Historicana imprint, Ungar published, edited, and/or produced several books about Arthur Szyk, including Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk (co-publisher and author);
Exhibitions
Several museum exhibitions played a significant role in Ungar's goal to bring Szyk back into the mainstream. As guest
curator or consultant, Ungar facilitated exhibitions of Szyk's art at Chicago's Spertus Museum (1998 – 1999);
the Library of Congress (1999 – 2000);
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (2002);
the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin (2008 – 2009);
Palace of the Legion of Honor in
San Francisco (2010 – 2011);
the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco (2014);
and the New-York Historical Society in New York City (2017 – 2018).
Byron Sherwin and The Szyk Haggadah
Rabbi Byron Sherwin, a renowned Jewish
theology, scholar, and author, collaborated closely with Ungar on several key projects. As Spertus Institute Distinguished Service Professor and Director of Doctoral Programs,
Sherwin worked with Ungar on the 1998 Spertus Museum exhibition, “Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk,” and wrote the introduction for the accompanying book of the same title.
For The Arthur Szyk Society’s
Seymour Fromer Traveling Exhibition Program, also entitled “Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk,” Sherwin wrote the panel text for the traveling photo-mural panels and the accompanying
study guide.
Sherwin's most significant collaboration with Ungar was the creation of a new edition of Szyk's Haggadah, originally published in 1940. Published in 2008 as a special edition,
Sale of the collection and Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art
In 2017, Tad Taube of Taube Philanthropies provided the funding to UC Berkeley to purchase The Arthur Szyk Collection from Ungar for the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. The $10.1 million gift was "the largest single monetary gift to acquire art in the long history of UC Berkeley."
The collection consisted of 450 original
,
, and sketches spanning Szyk's career, as well as thousands of items from Szyk's personal archives.
A few months after the sale of the collection, Ungar co-published, with GILES of London, the book Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art to coincide with the New-York Historical Society exhibition of the same name. Szyk and Ungar received considerable media coverage in 2017 and early 2018,
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