Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The statue of Rabbi Isaac Ger Graanboom

Yesterday I received an unexpected, but most welcome comment on an a post I did nearly a year ago about the famous family of Swedish converts, the Graanbooms, who were important members (and rabbis) of the Amsterdam Ashkenazic community in the 18th and 19th century (link). A direct descendent of this line remarked that he could provide me with a better photo of a statue of his illustrious ancestor Rabbi Isaac Ger than the one I borrowed from this Seforim Blog post, where it was described as "a statue of him which unfortunately disappeared during the Holocaust." I'm pleased that the statue is not lost at all, but is still possessed by the family, as it should be.




Photo credit: Mr. Ole Eshuis, Amsterdam.

This is an excellent example of how badly photographed and photocopied pictures are no substitute for a good one. Many thanks to Ole!

5 comments:

  1. If I may stereotype, very Swedish looking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not that I want to poke fun at a very cool post, but this was the first thing to pop into my head:
    http://www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/zoltar-2.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  3. This appears to be not a full, in-the-round "statue," but only a kind of bas-relief. Presumably this is what kept it within the bounds of halakha. Such exquisite and unusual workmanship (though the Zoltar resemblence is definitely there; good call, LFD). Could those be actual whiskers from R. Isaac's beard?

    ReplyDelete

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