Joyous paintings featured on Season Finale of Art and Scroll: April 16

By Shelley Werner

(AJNews) – The beautiful art on the cover of this month’s Alberta Jewish News is by author, artist, scholar and maggidah (spiritual storyteller) Shoshannah Brombacher, from Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

“Art makes the world within visible. My art is a tribute to music and to our heritage, especially the Chassidic world,” says the artist. “The Kotzker Rebbe once listened to a storyteller in the street talking about the Baal Shem Tov and stated, ‘He told what he wanted and I heard what I needed.’ That is art.”

The works of Shoshannah Brombacher bring alive the intense emotions and intergenerational memories of our identities. The impact of art on the spiritual interpretation of a Jewish tradition cannot be underestimated. Her colour palette gives life to the exuberant shapes and forms that dance their way across her paintings. To see the art is to touch our collective soul that reaches back through time to modern day.

Brombacher holds a Ph.D. from Leyden University (Holland) in medieval Hebrew poetry of the seventeenth century Sephardic Community of Amsterdam and has contributed to projects about Jewish manuscripts, books, and tombstone inscriptions. She taught, researched and studied in Leyden, Amsterdam (the Ets Haim Library and HetJoods Historisch Museum), Jerusalem, at the Free University of Berlin, and NewYork.

Her hearing loss forced her to leave the academic world and dedicate herself to art and writing. She organized courses for adults and children and currently lives in Berlin, where she dedicates her time to art, writing, lecturing, and telling Chassidic stories. She states: “For me, family and art are inseparable parts of my Jewish life. My academic background brings deeper meaning to my art, understanding of life and devotion to HaShem.”

The teachings of the Chassidic Masters fascinated her since she discovered them in her father’s study long ago. Her paintings are a tribute to the Chassidic way of life spreading light in a dark world while enriching our hearts and minds. Her themes include Jewish lore and legends, travels (the Venice murals), social justice (poetry of Nazim Hikmet Ran, OWS), classical music (Beethoven series), poetry in many languages, and custom art for special occasions, like weddings, kaddish and bar/bat mitzvah.

Brombacher has participated in, curated and organized international art exhibitions and won several awards and grants for her work which is in museums, (private) collections and institutions in all five continents.

She is currently the vice-president of the American Guild of Judaic Art, and contributes regularly to other magazines, blogs or calendars.

She has authored and illustrated several books and articles including Meetings with Remarkable Souls (E. Klein, illustr. S. Brombacher), Letters of Light (A. L. Raskin, illustr. S. Brombacher), and When the Shouting Began (S. Sher, illustr. S. Brombacher). Brombacher designed calendars, posters, book and CD cover-art for synagogues, institutions, and has created posters for museums, films, the Yiddish Rep Theater (New York), Occupy Wall Street and others. Exhibitions include Liberaal Joodse Gemeente, The Hague, The Netherlands (solo), University of Leyden, The Netherlands, and  Rova haYehudit, Jerusalem (solo).

Her work is an homage to classical music, poetry, Jewish and Chassidic stories, and traveling. Her love for people and memories of eras gone but not forgotten, cities where she lived and worked, like Amsterdam, Berlin, Jerusalem, New York, or visited, like Prague and Sicily create the main ingredients of her art.

Like the water of the canals of her native Amsterdam, Rembrandt’s city, the deeper you look into her paintings, the more you see. “A reflection of a reflection of a reflection…look, what you see is not what you see. My art contains texts and letters, lets writing come alive, and reflects my deep connection with the Dutch 17th century Masters, German expressionism, Russian art and medieval miniatures.”

Shoshannah has created many art works for Pesach, wrote a complete Haggadah, series of the 15 Steps, Chad Gadya, Echad mee Yodea, in black and white or in color, painted the seder, and more. Pesach means to jump, like the angel of death jumped over the houses of the Jewish slaves in Egypt. In the painting the Chassid jumps for joy over the liberation.

Shoshannah Brombacher will be the featured guest on Wednesday April 16, 2025, 7:00 pm MDT on Art and Scroll Studio, a live zoom series that celebrates the makers and creators of Judaic art. She will share her incredible journey highlighting her inspiration and motivation for lighting the fire of spiritual intension in her work.

To view a short preview visit  https://bit.ly/ShoshannahBrombacherPreview

For tickets for this virtual and free program visit https://bit.ly/ShoshannahBrombacherTickets

Shelley Werner is the host of Art and Scroll Studio zoom series that celebrates the makers and creators of Judaica Art.