Why do so many English churches contain work by Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe? In June 2021, we held a conference which attracted people from all over the country to hear talks exploring this subject by art historians, theologians and descendants. You can see the talks below.
The conference took place in the nave of St John’s beneath our 1951 murals by Hans Feibusch, the German Jewish refugee who painted more murals for the Church of England than any other artist in the Church of England’s entire history.
At the end of the conference, Hans Feibusch’s grandson Paul Werth announced that he was consigning several smaller paintings and drawings by Feibusch to Chiswick Auctions. They raised £11,000, towards our £50,000 funding campaign for urgent conservation of the St John’s Feibusch murals.
The conference was organised in association with Art and Christianity and Insiders/Outsiders.
A Jewish Jesus: Art and Faith in the Shadow of World War II<
A conference held at St John’s Waterloo 16th June 2021
Welcome by Euchar Gravina, Artistic Director of the Waterloo Festival.
Introduction by Edmund de Waal.
Edmund de Waal OBE is an artist, master potter and author, best known for his book ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’ and his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels often created in response to collections and archives or the history of a particular place.
Emma Rose Barber: On Hans Feibusch, setting his work for St John’s and other Anglican churches in the broader context of his life and times.
Emma Rose Barber is an art historian who has been teaching adults for over 25 years. She has spent the last five years with a Mini A-Z of London looking for churches to write about, many of which can be found on her blog. Her book, 111 Churches In London That You Shouldn’t Miss, was published in September 2020. She is also writing a Cultural History of Wayfaring.
Monica Bohm-Duchen: On Jewish refugee artists who came to the UK and worked for the Church and/or dealt with Christian themes, as well as non-refugee Jewish artists such as Jacob Epstein, Emmanuel Levy and Morris Kestelman and artists working outside the UK, notably Marc Chagall.
Monica Bohm-Duchen is a London-based independent writer, lecturer and curator. Her many publications include After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Art and the Second World War. She was the initiator of and is Creative Director of Insiders/Outsiders, a continuing nationwide arts festival celebrating the contribution of refugees from Nazi Europe to British culture.
Welcome by Revd Canon Giles Goddard, Vicar of St John’s Waterloo, and Claudia Fiochetti, the conservator of the Feibusch murals at St John’s Waterloo.
Edward Kessler: the theological context for Jewish-Christian relations.
Dr Edward Kessler MBE is Founder Director of the Woolf Institute and a leading thinker in interfaith relations, primarily Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations.
The Revd Dr Andrew Williams: the church’s reception of Jewish crucifixion imagery after the Holocaust.
Revd Andrew Williams is Senior Lecturer in Religious Education at the University of Roehampton and is extensively engaged in promoting interfaith dialogue.
Olivia Power: Marc Chagall’s stained glass windows at All Saints’ Church, Tudeley, Kent.
Olivia Power is Head of Critical Thinking at Sevenoaks School. Her MA dissertation at Birkbeck, University of London was titled ‘From Jewish Jesus to Universal Christ: Reconsidering Chagall’s Windows at All Saints’ Church, Tudeley’.
Dr Aaron Rosen: Diasporic identity in contemporary art.
Dr Aaron Rosen is Professor of Religion and Visual Culture and Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of ‘Art & Religion in the 21st Century’, ‘Imagining Jewish Art’, and ‘Brushes with Faith’.
Peter Webster: Bishop George Bell and Dean Walter Hussey as supporters of Feibusch and patrons of the arts.
Peter Webster is an historian of Christianity in 20th Century Britain, and author of ‘Church And Patronage in 20th Century Britain: Walter Hussey and the Arts’.
Clare Price: At-risk murals and works of art in UK churches.
Clare Price is the Twentieth Century Society’s Head of Casework. She is a Chartered Surveyor, and has an MSc in Conservation of the Historic Environment. She is studying for a PhD in Architectural History at Oxford University, researching Inter-war churches.
Panel discussion, chaired by Ben Quash with Alan Powers, Issam Kourbaj and Jacquiline Creswell.
Ben Quash has been Professor of Christianity and the Arts at Kings College London since 2007. From 2004-2007 he was Academic Convenor of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme in the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity. He continues to collaborate with Jewish and Muslim theologians, and is increasingly fascinated by how the arts can play a part in renewing theological engagement with the Bible.
Alan Powers specialises in the study of art, architecture and design in Britain in the middle years of the twentieth century, teaching, writing and playing an active role in conservation. He teaches at the University of Kent and is History Leader at the London School of Architecture. A founding member of the Thirties Society in 1979, he became its first honorary casework officer and later led its name change to the Twentieth Century Society. He was Chairman 2007-12, and continues to play a role in events, casework and publications.
Issam Kourbaj is a Syrian artist now based in Cambridge. He is artist-in-residence at Christ’s College and lectures in art.
Jacquiline Creswell is a freelance Visual Arts Advisor. Since 2009, she has been responsible for developing Salisbury Cathedral’s pioneering Arts Programme. She is a trustee of Art + Christianity.
Jewish artists whose work can be seen in UK churches, short talks by surviving family or friends:
Nick Braithwaite (grand-nephew of George Mayer-Marton) is currently campaigning for the preservation of a Crucifixion mural by Mayer-Marton at the former Church of the Holy Rosary in Oldham.
Anita Peleg (daughter of Naomi Blake) is a University Lecturer and a National Teaching Fellow. She has published two books about her mother, Naomi Blake, a sculptor and survivor of Auschwitz.
Marc Allum in conversation with Paul Werth, grandson of Hans Feibusch.
