New York: Cartoonist case study, Feb. 17

Political cartoonist, illuminist and illustrator Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) is the focus of a case study documenting his life with genealogical documents, at the next meeting of the New York Jewish Genealogical Society at 2pm, Sunday, February 17, at the Center for Jewish History.

Presenting "Arthur Szyk: An Artist’s Self-Portrait in Documents" is Rhoda Miller, Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island president.

Szyk is not­ed for extraordinarily detailed art involving Jewish themes, anti-Nazi cartoons, adver­tising, and illustrations in which he typically includes self-portraiture as well as char­ac­ter­izations of his family.

While Szyk an ubiquitous artist during the WW II era, this is the first time his life has been examined in the context of his involvement with bureaucratic systems during his most prolific periods.

The detail of his self-portrait through documents is revealed through genealogical research strategies that intertwine rabbinic research, Polish records, the Holocaust, American immigration and natural­ization, as well as FBI in­vestigation. His Jewish, anti-Nazi and Zionist themes are explored as an expression of his personal and artistic life.

Rhoda Miller holds an Ed.D and is a Certified Genealogist (CG). She lectures widely at libraries, community groups, genealogy societies and annual Jewish genealogical conferences. She teaches a family history credit course at Dowling College (Oakdale, NY).

The CJH's Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute will be open 12:30-1:45pm for net­work­ing and access to research materials and computers.

For more information, click here.